Get a sense of what a creative coaching session is like as Lauren and Rachael help each other with specific challenges they are facing in their respective businesses and lives. Each host listens and offers insights to help the other move closer to achieving their goals.
Get a sense of what a creative coaching session is like as Lauren and Rachael help each other with specific challenges they are facing in their respective businesses and lives. Each host listens and offers insights to help the other move closer to achieving their goals.
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The transcript for this episode can be found here!
Lauren: Hey, Lauren here. This episode is brought to you by me and my brain. If you've ever wanted to pick it, you can now book a one-on-one coaching session with me. Whether you want a portfolio review, advice on launching an online course from someone who's done it two dozen or so times, or you just want to talk through the big existential creative questions that keep you up at night, I'd love to support you. A limited number of sliding scale slots are available as well, I know it's weird out there right now. You can go to homsweethom.com/coaching, or head to the link in the episode description to learn more. Okay, now back to the show.
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Rachael: I am sort of the type of person that's all or nothing, so I'm like, "I have to do a residency and do a solo show." But there are lower entry points that are so much less work that I could get. And, you know ...
Lauren: Hello and welcome to Chaotic Creatives, the show about embracing the chaos that comes with living a creative life.
Rachael: We are your hosts, two self-proclaimed, chaotic, creative gals. I am Rachael Renee. I am an artist, a creativity coach, and your internet hype gal.
Lauren: And I am Lauren Hom, better known as Hom Sweet Hom on the internet. I'm a designer, lettering artist, muralist and chef. Welcome.
Rachael: Yay. Today we're doing an experimental episode, where we both coach folks in the creative fields, creative realms, creative world, and we thought it would be helpful to creative coach each other.
Lauren: Yeah, because always doing it anyways when we hang out, and we thought it might be fun to do it live, on an episode.
Rachael: Yeah. I mean, truly every time we talk and hang out as friends, we of course talk about our personal lives, but it does always tend to get back to our businesses, because we care so much about our businesses.
Lauren: And also our personal lives affect our businesses and vice versa.
Rachael: And we have each other to bounce ideas off of, and noodle on new ideas and support each other. And that's really offering each other coaching. And we thought if we did it on air it might be helpful, because we do both offer coaching and we're opening up some spots in the next few weeks, next few months, both of us are, which you can find on our respective websites and in the show notes.
So this is just giving you a little taste of what that might look like. Of course, each individual one-on-one coaching session is going to be tailored to your particular problem, or challenge rather. It's not a problem, but it's challenge, what you're stuck on or working through. And yeah, we both decided to bring some questions to each other. So would you like to coach or be coached first?
Lauren: Why don't you do me first?
Rachael: Okay.
Lauren: In what way?
Rachael: I coach you first.
Lauren: Yeah, how about that? Okay.
Rachael: All right. Lauren, hi, we know each other. Tell me what you're challenged with right now. What are you stuck on? What can I help you with?
Lauren: Well, okay, so I have been doing my creative business for over a decade now. Started as a lettering artist, and slowly expanded to doing chalk, murals, and now I do a little bit of everything. I recently went to culinary school, and so, you know me, I'm a chaotic creative, I like to do a lot of things. And I'm always balancing this practical side of me and then the passionate side of me, where I want to do all the things, and then all the business advice that I read is telling me, "No, you have to do one thing to be successful." I also understand that, for comprehension sake, doing fewer things is easier for a, I guess, audience or customer to understand. But what I've been struggling with lately that is new for me, that I never struggled with early on in my career, because I just had the young hungry, not in my head, naivete, which I miss so much. Nothing to lose, no fears. I have been a little bit more in my head about putting myself out there, promoting myself, marketing my work. I think I've been able to ride off of a lot of the momentum that I built in the first half of my career, doing a lot of personal work, publishing it online, being really active on Instagram, writing a newsletter.
I did all the things I was supposed to do, I got all the accolades. I have a really solid portfolio, and I guess I got my foot in the door in the industry.
But I recently sent my media kit out and I was going to update my metrics and stuff and I went in my Instagram analytics, and I've only posted on Instagram seven times in the last three months, and that's not good. And what I'm struggling with is, I have a lot of brain garbage around sharing my work and promoting my work, as that's my output on the internet, when my input on the internet is just like, the world is on fire.
And I know I've been getting better at turning the spigot of world is on fire off more, because it's not entirely helpful. But I just have been having a harder time knowing more things online, and feeling overwhelmed. And my MO is avoidance. So I mean, we're friends, I won't text people that I love dearly back for weeks, months.
Rachael: And it builds up.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: And so now you've got this mountain of brain garbage as you named it, to climb over to get back to regular posting, to marketing the work that is important and helpful to people.
Lauren: And I will add some more context that even if it's not Instagram per se, I've just been struggling with consistently marketing my work, because I also know as someone who's self employed, and I've taught this before, and it's something that younger me is yelling at older me about, when you're self employed you have to be your own hype person, no one else is going to do it for you.
And so let me add some more context. So the reason that I need to work through this, putting myself out there and marketing my work more, is because I know that I'm in charge of getting my work out there as someone who's self employed, and generating my own leads because I'm running a business and I need to make money. And if I stop marketing my work, eventually the work will dry up. And work has been slower in the last two years, and I think I'm just feeling a little bit more of that, "Oh shoot, I need to do something about this now." And I think it's, for better or worse, it's a pretty normal human thing where we don't do anything about something until we have to. And so I'm starting to actually think, "Okay, how do I ... without taking the less desirable route of bullying myself into posting? Because that doesn't feel good."
Rachael: And I think your audience can feel when you're forcing it.
Lauren: Yeah, absolutely. I'm trying to figure out or work through how to share my work more often, more joyfully, in a way that's not just like, do it.
Rachael: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You're not your own bad boss. Yeah.
Lauren: Because I can just do it, but that's not my ideal way.
Rachael: But you want it to feel good. You want it to be part of your routine again, and feel good and exciting and inspiring, so that your audience also feels good and inspired and excited about the work that you're producing. Yeah. Okay. So I guess a couple of questions to kind of set the stage. What are your offerings? What are you trying to market?
Lauren: I'm available for freelance, like my bread and butter, how I started my business, just freelance commercial design work. So lettering for book covers, magazines, ad campaigns, that kind of stuff. Murals, just anything where I'm a service provider. So that's kind of been the core of my business the entire time.
Rachael: So that's core one.
Lauren: So that is usually me sharing just past projects I've done, artwork, process. That was how most people in my Instagram neck of the woods built their followings, was just like, "Here, I'm going to share the work that I'm doing." We were kind of using it as pocket portfolios.
And then I also teach in-person workshops and online classes, so there's an education pillar of my business. So I, on again off again, will do ... launch model online courses, sometimes one-off courses, webinars, and then sometimes I'll do evergreen things.
At this point, when this episode comes out, I'm not quite sure what my offerings will be, but online education and in-person, so promoting educational stuff. And that happened organically because when I was sharing just my artwork, people asked, "How did you make said artwork?" And would just ask me questions, and that's how I got into teaching.
And then the third pillar I would say is, I do occasional brand partnerships and things like that. So usually it's less lifestyle and more creative entrepreneur adjacent brand partnerships. So those are kind of the three things that make money for me.
Rachael: Great. Okay. So which of those three, and the answer can be all of them, are you most interested in getting more work from?
Lauren: Ooh.
Rachael: If you had to give a hierarchy?
Lauren: So here's the thing I've been hung up on for years, because I started as a ... again, just run of the mill working from a desk in the corner of my bedroom, freelance graphic designer, lettering artist.
Rachael: Cute that you're getting back to your desk in the bedroom.
Lauren: I know. But those are my roots, it's like I never thought I was going to speak or teach or do any of those things, so online courses have historically been more profitable for my business. However, for the last ... ever since I started teaching them, I've done so much business coaching over the years. I have been holding onto this thing, and I still hold onto it and I'm okay with it at this point, that I still like doing the artwork. I like getting paid for doing the art, and I still feel like I need some ... to be actively doing that in order to have the credibility to teach as well, because otherwise I feel like I could wade into some weird grifty territory, where I'm like, "I'm a freelance graphic designer," but I haven't had a client in 10 years.
Rachael: Sure.
Lauren: I just don't know if that's because-
Rachael: It's helping you keep knowledge of the industry.
Lauren: Yeah. Yeah.
Rachael: That's fair.
Lauren: I'd say the first two brand partnerships were just kind of a thing that-
Rachael: That's a bonus.
Lauren: ...happened. I'm the least interested in doing that, even though it also is very lucrative. So the first two, education and then actually getting paid for the design.
Rachael: And what I heard from you is likely you'll probably do launch style for your education, so you'll have your months or quarters broken up into like, okay, I'm working on this launch and this education right now, and then maybe the months in between launches, you'll be sharing more portfolio style work. So how I'm envisioning it as a Gantt chart of the calendar year.
Lauren: What's a Gantt chart.
Rachael: Oh, that is from my engineering background. Gantt, it's like G A N T T, is I think the person who came up with it, but it's where you see the months are on top, and the project tasks are ... it's like a table. And then you see, okay, task one is IDA or research, and it's like month one to four, and then task two is this, and then it just kind of shows you the whole [inaudible 00:12:31]-
Lauren: The whole timeline.
Rachael: ... yeah.
Lauren: Interesting.
Rachael: That was one of the first things they taught us in engineering school.
Lauren: I'm going to have to look this up.
Rachael: Oh my gosh, I'll share. I have a colorful spreadsheet that I use to map out my year, so that I can really think about my launches and like, "Okay, I'm going to be working on this one collaboration project with a ceramic artist at this time, so don't be scheduling other stuff during that time." It just helps me map out, "Okay, these are my priorities for these quarters or months." So I'm envisioning your launches as alternating between those, with other things interspersed, of course. So if you are in one of the in-between launch times, and focusing on client work, corporate client work, what kind of things would you normally be posting online before you entered garbage brain mountain ride?
Lauren: In between launches? So this is like to ... what am I posting to attract client work?
Rachael: Yes. Yes.
Lauren: Historically, I've posted past client projects that I've been really proud of, the highlights, bangers, and then recent client work.
Rachael: Okay.
Lauren: Yeah, so I mean have just a decade's worth. I have an archive of so much work, and so much B roll that Crystal shot, and I have the stuff and I know I can schedule it, and I just won't do it.
Rachael: Yeah. Okay. So ignoring the stuff that you already have, what could you work on that would get you excited to share? Can we ignore all of the work that you've already created? You have a lot of content, we will pretend that doesn't exist for now, and you're starting fresh with, "I want to get clients with this kind of work, and I also am a passion project person. I have a lot of things that I'm working on." Is there anything, when I ask that question, are there any ideas that are popping into your head as far as, "I want to work on this and talk about this project," like your Taking back Sunday project for example. Or are there any kind of silly Peen Cuisine style projects, that maybe are not as Peen Cuisiney, that have been hanging out in your brain that you haven't executed yet, and maybe not because you've been focused on the move?
Lauren: No, that Deadline Dinner thing is the only thing I've thought of, but it's not design related.
Rachael: But the Deadline Dinners thing is also ... so switching gears to the education side, I guess, you could be shooting B-roll of doing that, talking about that experience, talking about the melding of your freelance lifestyle, and your passion projects of cooking and preparing for your chaotic creative schedule that you set for yourself, and like, and that's why you work for yourself. Could any of that be used to market some of your educational content? Like this is a passion project, but in a different format than you've historically shared?
Lauren: Wait, what?
Rachael: Sorry. It's okay. It's okay. So Deadline Dinners, it can be a container that you're creating your actual Deadline Dinners, but you're recording it, and perhaps talking about it in a way that this is a passion project, but it's not a design flat photographed passion project.
Lauren: It's like a content passion project. Yeah, because when you and I were talking years ago, passion projects are also, it could be content where it's like, okay, but to use it to talk about ...
Rachael: Your education, what are your educational offerings? You have the portfolio procrastinator.
Lauren: Portfolio class, mural class, my passion project class, which is a whole other thing I got to revamp that. I will not promote it until I revamp it.
Rachael: Okay. So could this be you creating Deadline Dinners, recording content, thinking about talking points for Deadline Dinners, as it relates to passion project as you want it to be? Would that motivate you to update Passion to Paid, or does that feel overwhelming?
Lauren: Well, the thing that came to mind when you were saying that was, maybe with Deadline Dinners, I wonder if I could use it as a, again vehicle if I'm talking about something, I didn't really think about using it to talk about anything really other than the recipes, but maybe I could share stories from real client projects, real deadlines that I worked on, there's a lot of twists and turns and unexpected revisions and stuff, and maybe there's like a story time opportunity.
Rachael: I feel like a storytelling opportunity, you're sharing ... I love the idea of it being a real, I'm thinking in terms of content because that's one of the hurdles that we're trying to address.
Lauren: But it's not the making of the art that's the hurdle, it's the content part that's the hurdle. I also just do this fucked up thing, where I know I want to share more on the internet, but then I consume media about how the internet's fucked up, and the tech monopolies are stealing our data, and I consume media that makes me not want to post on the internet, even though I desperately need to post on the internet.
Rachael: Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like I think you and I both have Chase bank credit cards, and they invest in things that we probably don't support, but we still use those cards. It's like I understand where you're coming from, and I think I try to just put my hee hee blinders on.
Lauren: Everything's happening all at once. It's not a, again, with my MP being avoidant, I can't just turn away from it completely. And I mean I can, but there's consequences to that, and it's an imperfect situation.
Rachael: I think it's imperfect action. We've talked about that before on the podcast, where that stuff is happening anyway, whether or not you are marketing your work, and your work is your livelihood.
And also you're creating and cultivating and encouraging an online community of people who want to be better. You can talk about your values, you are very scrappy in terms of using all of the food, you have your 10 pounds of beans or almonds or whatever it is. You have a very caring approach to your cooking, you cook for us all the time. You cook for your people in your life. So I think that you can talk about community being important, and you're cultivating that through sharing your story and people seeing themselves through you. So I think, yeah, if there's a way where you can have the storytelling aspect where it's a video, and you're doing a voiceover and talking about why you chose this particular meal, maybe then there's a carousel with a recipe or a link to a blog post with a recipe, to create this container.
And maybe it's like you give yourself the challenge, which you know I love to talk about challenges. I gave myself a break on posting on Fridays, by creating Friday Feed Refresher, where I just post, it's not junk posting, it's just like, here are the things that I'm ... little joys that I had this week, but can it be Recipe Thursday or something? So you kind of give yourself, "I don't have to think about what to post this day, because it's this day and I'm going to post the recipe." To give yourself a baseline, so you're just like, "Okay, well it's this day, I know I'm going to do that." Instead of having to be like, "Whoa, I'm overwhelmed. I have to plan a week of content." Does that make sense?
Lauren: Yeah. I used to do that with my newsletter, and I think having a reason to post, which is why launch schedules work better for me with courses. That does make sense.
Rachael: Okay. Well, I'm here to keep talking about it.
Lauren: Thank you. I know we're way over my time, I'm sure.
Rachael: No, we're actually-
Lauren: Really?
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Wow.
Rachael: We did 20 minutes.
Lauren: Okay. That's not bad. Thank you.
Rachael: So yeah, I hope that was helpful.
Lauren: It is. I'm like, there's only so much we can talk about in 20 minutes.
Rachael: Yeah. And, like I said, we can take this offline. Love to use corporate lingo. I think that's something that maybe I have never ... because I have followed you, and that's how we became friends. I kind of know, based on what I see on the internet or your emails, what your offerings are, but thinking about asking those direct questions and thinking about, okay, these are the two main targets that I'm thinking of, and if we are cultivating the trust and relational aspects of your audience, and talking about it in the perspective of, "I'm doing this passion project," and then linking it to a blog post or whatever, getting people like, "Hey, as I'm doing this passion project myself, I'm updating Passion to Paid, get on the wait list." Maybe it doesn't even need to be a hard sell, but you can just be like, "This is happening. It's coming." And maybe by promising that it will force you to do it, because I know we love a deadline.
Lauren: I need a deadline.
Rachael: And Deadline Dinners. You're using Deadline Dinners to create a deadline for yourself, which you could talk about.
Lauren: Oh, this could mean this could be a whole other thing. Yeah. I mean, the reason I haven't updated Passion to Paid, or haven't promoted it is because ... I think we might've talked about this offline, but I'm still confident about the creative material that I teach in there, of how to come up with a creative brief and come up with a passion project format, that fits the kind of work that you want to do and come up with a portfolio piece.
I'm less confident because the internet has changed so much, and the algorithms that distribute what people see has changed so much. I don't know if I can teach people anymore how to get their work seen, per se. And that was a big sell of the class, because I came up in the Tumblr era, where you could have a project go viral a little more easily. And not even viral viral, but there was a different kind of shareability to work 10 years ago, and now I'm just like, I don't know.
Rachael: Well, I think your messaging still is true. The goal of Passion to Paid is to create a body of work that excites you, and share it. And maybe you have to tweak the messaging of like, yeah, you might not be getting in front of all of the eyes immediately because we don't use hashtags as much, or this algorithm, but maybe it's just like we never really know what the algorithm is going to do, but we can show up consistently for ourselves. And that's the advice that you can give.
Lauren: That is true, with my only other solve was like, well, the promotion part was a third of the class, so maybe I should just lower the price by a third. I don't know.
Rachael: I mean, I think they should still promote their work. It's just like you're not guaranteeing that they're going to get [inaudible 00:24:01] work, which you weren't guaranteeing that anyway.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: I feel like with a little bit of tweaking of language, it actually probably doesn't need as much as you think.
Lauren: I think I'm just being really hard on myself too, because it's kind of like what you said in a couple episodes ago about how you were hesitant to call yourself a creativity coach, because you didn't want to be associated with the negative connotation of online coach. I am doing a version of that with this where I'm like, "Well, I don't want to sell anything that I can't a hundred percent deliver on, when no one can a hundred percent deliver on anything." I'm just like, I've been feeling weird about it for years, ever since I felt less certain that I could deliver on the class.
Rachael: And I think all people are really looking for is just trusting that you're going to be honest with them, which you are. And you could say, "I came up in the Tumblr era. The internet is a lot different now, but I do think that showing up consistently for yourself, and putting your work out there is the best way."
Lauren: It's better than not.
Rachael: It's better than not.
Lauren: Yeah. Yep. That is true.
Rachael: And maybe it's getting people in your own newsletter funnel faster, so that you can have more control over your audience. But-
Lauren: For sure.
Rachael: ... I mean, I don't think that Instagram is a bad idea. I still love to post on Instagram, and I do think that new people are finding me every day, and it's just a matter of consistency. Would love to keep talking about this. So let's do that.
Lauren: Okay.
Rachael: Yeah.
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Rachael: This episode is brought to you by me, Rachael Renae, your creativity coach. Did you know that I offer one-on-one sessions? One of my favorite things is to help my fellow chaotic creatives gain a little bit of clarity in their creative practices and their lives. So you can book a session today, we can develop or refine your creative project idea. We can clarify your creative goals. We can map out what your big juicy life looks like, or we can build a system for prioritizing play, and making it easy for you to incorporate. If you'd like to book a session, you can visit RachaelRenae.com, that's R A C H A E L R E N A E dot com, backslash coaching.
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Lauren: Well, what questions do you have for moi?
Rachael: Okay. Actually, after that, I feel like I have a couple, but I'll start with one, and then if we rapid fire through it, I'll-
Lauren: I mean, you can ask me, it doesn't matter.
Rachael: I know, I know. Okay. So as you all know, listeners, watchers, pals, I've been introducing myself this season as an artist first, because I'm very interested in working on my practice, more as a practice and not just as a hobby where I make one thing because I'm excited about it. I have some ideas for bodies of work that do storytelling, but in my style of creating objects. And one of my big juicy life goals, I think in the far future, or maybe mid future, is to apply for and hopefully get accepted to some residency programs.
In order to get accepted to a residency program, as far as I understand, I have to have a portfolio. And I've never had a portfolio, because I've had my Instagram of my work with my own business, but I've never actually created a fine art portfolio.
Lauren: Which always surprises me, because I just kind of, with Hazel and Dolly and your ceramics and your online shop, I just kind of assumed it was attached to a portfolio always, because in my world, everyone just has a portfolio.
Rachael: Yeah, I mean, I think when I started created my website for Rachael Renae, I kind of had some pillars of, "Here's my art, here are my clothes, here's my media kit." And it was very simple. It was like I threw up a Squarespace template site, and so for a while I was taking pictures of my ceramics work and posting it, because I wanted to sell it. But then I shifted gears and was like, I stopped doing ceramics for several years, first of all, and then I didn't really see a need for a portfolio, because the work that I was getting was based around fashion at the time, which is easiest to see on my Instagram.
And so not a lot of people were going to my website. And now my website is more about what are my offerings, and who am I, and how to work with me.
But yeah, I first and foremost want to be an artist. What I talk about and what I envision for my dream life is, I want the time, freedom, to dick around on whatever projects I'm working on, but working toward them as processing feelings and stories that I'm working through in my head. And they're all related to personal growth, and my experience of growing and recognizing limiting beliefs, and interrupting patterns that have historically not served me, and identity and things like that. And I feel like I want to explore those in a broader sense with a body of work. And so everything that I've created is kind of just like one off, this is fun. And I haven't ... because it's not been a part of a larger picture or experience or body of work, I haven't really documented it. And so yeah, I think I would love your advice on how to create a portfolio, what kind of things ... how should I approach it knowing that my kind of pillars of my artistic work are ceramics, sewing, and I guess creative expression through all the work that I create. But I don't know if that needs to go in the portfolio.
Lauren: For the sake of getting a artist residency, based on what I know, I've never applied for one. So I think the things you'll need are the body of work, and to me, your body of work are textiles and then ceramics. So I think those can live in either separate pages or tabs, or maybe they look ... because aesthetically you kind of have a through line to all your work-
Rachael: I think so.
Lauren: ... I think, with colors and shapes, it could all live on the same page too. I think that with your body of work, it's what I call the trail mix method, where it's just all in one page. Because that's what my body of work is, if you go to my website, just like homsweethom.com/work, it's just like 50 projects all in a row. And because I use similar colors and textures, and all my work feels okay together in a collection, almost like a collection of stamps or something.
Whereas some people, if they work in completely different mediums or different, let's say industries, maybe you work for a lot of sports teams for whatever, you do branding for sports teams. But then you also do stationary, maybe those things don't look nice intermingled, so it's really a curation thing. So I see that for you, where it's like textiles, ceramics, and then you'll just need a artist statement, and a little bit about yourself, and then a CV with just stuff about your creative practice and where you went to school. I don't think it matters so much, because you didn't go to an art school, but I think they'll just want to see education, it's like a resume.
Rachael: I mean, what is the CV? I've never made a CV before.
Lauren: It's basically an artistic resume that, have you ever participated in a group art show even for letter ... okay. It's just a creative resume basically, that lists any shows you've been in, any schooling you've had, anything notable that you've done, maybe even some interviews, press. I'm trying to think what I know about you that you could put in there. An artist statement might just be enough.
Rachael: I mean, I think knowing that, thinking about the show thing, there have been a couple of group show call for projects that I have seen, that I'm like, "I should really start paying more attention to these," so that I can submit work and understand that process. Sort of the type of person that's like all or nothing. So I'm like, I have to do a residency and do a solo show, but there are lower entry points that are so much less work, that I could get in.
Lauren: Yeah, it's always good to start small, because when it comes to building a portfolio too, one bit of advice that I give people a lot, because this has been true in my own career too, is instead of waiting until you have a body of work you actually are so jazzed about, to then get the website ... I actually started my first website when I was 16 in high school, and it was my full birthcertificatename.com, which is probably not a great idea. And it had all my high school graphic design artwork, it was not good. But what I tell people is, get in the habit of getting your as-is portfolio up now. Something is better than nothing, and you iterate where, "Okay, this is what I'm working with now." And you just slowly over the years, swap out your worst project for a better project and things just get slotted in, and over time your portfolio just gets a little better and better and better. And it's easier once you have the bones to slowly slot things in and out, than to build up this body of work that's just files on your computer, and then feel overwhelmed by like, okay, how do I get this online now?
And so I think you starting with just textiles and ceramics now is perfect, because now you can iterate from there. Now you'll have these two nice categories, and seeing all of your work together in one vertical is actually really powerful, because you'll see instead of just each piece that you've been working on one at a time, you'll see all your ceramics work shot on the same background, in a gallery. That's pretty cool.
Rachael: Yeah, I am excited about that. As I was thinking about when I told you and Crystal about the residency idea, I was like, "I don't know, what even medium would I apply." And you both were like, "Oh, ceramics, duh." And I was like, "I don't have that much ceramics work." And then I walked around my house, after that day that we talked about it, and I was like, "Oh, I have a lot. I have a lamp, I have a clock. I have lots of little dishes that I've carved into. I have a really cool mug series that I've made." And weird little things that I've made but don't think about, because it's like a magnet on my fridge, but it's still fun, and can be ... and I do feel that I have a very strong through line as far as the aesthetics of all my pieces look pretty similar. I do the same kind of carving and color ways.
And my textile pieces are similar. I haven't made as many, but I know the listeners and watchers can't see, but I have that quilted bag that I made, and so many people were like, "Oh my gosh, did you make your bag?" And I was like, "Actually, I used a bunch of scrap from chopping a T-shirt." Anytime I crop a T-shirt, I keep the other fabric, and I make little grids with all of that extra fabric. And then I just got a branded bag from somebody that I didn't care about the brand name, and I covered it up. And I'm like, oh, doing little projects that is still, I can still take a photo of that because it's showing off how I'm pairing colors together. And the sustainability aspect of, so much of my sewing work is already existing fabric, I'm not buying new fabric for it.
Lauren: A hundred percent. And I will say a lot of a portfolio as well, coming from a graphic design background, a lot of it has to do with how you present it. A photo taken for Instagram, where it's quickly snapped with a phone or it's like you take a screenshot of a video of you wearing the bag, that's not quite ... because you weren't thinking about it with the intention to put it in a portfolio. Sure, it might work as a stand-in, but maybe there's people in the background, or you're wearing an outfit that's competing with the bag as well. When things are shot for portfolios, it's usually on a clean background, nice lighting. The intention is to showcase just the piece that was made, and you can tell in the final object.
A lot of times when I'm doing portfolio reviews, when I get into the nitty-gritty for designers, a lot of it comes down to like, "Hey, this is a great poster or greeting card that you did, or painting, but why is it ... if I were you, I would not shoot it like I can tell it's on your dining table, top down, or a picnic table or on the floor. Maybe consider propped up against just a solid color wall."
It just adds a little bit more of a professional edge to it, and it shows someone who's looking like they can picture your work now in more of a gallery setting, or more of a curated space.
Rachael: Okay, so here's a question, and I was just talking to Crystal about this. One thing ... how I'm envisioning this is like you're saying, clean background, white, what is it called, endless?
Lauren: Seamless.
Rachael: Seamless, yeah. And in some cases though, I do think it would be fun to have GIF style, where it's like the lamp turns on and off, and it's still on that formal background, and the photos that created the GIF are higher quality. Obviously, I want playfulness in my work no matter what, and the pieces are playful. But how would you ... would you advise against doing stuff like that? Or if my hand is holding something and I'm twisting it, still with the white background, the high quality, would you advise against that?
Lauren: Oh, no, I think that's absolutely fine. And it really depends on your personal style. And because of your style, you can be more casual about it, you can still have fun. I shoot a lot of my portfolio on a colored backdrop, even if it's solid color.
Rachael: Oh sure, yeah.
Lauren: So you can do colorful seamlesses, as long as it's not competing with the art. You never want your background to compete with the art, that's really all it is. I have GIFs in my portfolio too.
Rachael: Oh, you call them GIFs? Oh, are we ... oh, I know I'm wrong, but I prefer GIF.
Lauren: I was at a event, and the guy who founded or created GIFs said it's GIF.
Rachael: He's wrong too.
Lauren: Sure.
Rachael: Yeah, I know. I know.
Lauren: I'm trying to be respectful.
Rachael: I know that's nice of you. I'm like ... I like the GUH sound.
Lauren: What was that?
Rachael: The GUH sound. There's a video game on Nintendo 64 that I played as a kid and still sometimes pull out and play, called Banjo-Kazooie. Are you familiar?
Lauren: Kind of.
Rachael: Okay. I've probably talked about it before, and it's a bear and a bird.
Lauren: Oh, no, this is Crash Bandicoot.
Rachael: Crash Bandicoot, yeah, similar. I mean, the games are different, but yeah, similar era.
Lauren: Is it a different universe?
Rachael: Mm-hmm.
Lauren: Okay.
Rachael: Yeah. So Banjo is a bear.
Lauren: No clue.
Rachael: And he wears a little backpack, and Kazooie is the bird that lives in his backpack, and it's a single player game, like a ... what is it called, where you explore and you do challenges and you're doing it by yourself?
Lauren: Open World?
Rachael: Yeah, I think so. It doesn't matter.
Lauren: I'm not nerdy enough to know. I'm sorry.
Rachael: Me either. You would think that I would be, but-
Lauren: You're not computer nerdy though.
Rachael: ... I'm an only child, so I played a lot of these single player games growing up. And yeah, I should have been outside, I was a lot. My mom just sent me a picture of me ... a bunch of film photos of me. There was one of me riding a bike, one of me playing baseball, one of me on the four wheeler, one of me ice skating, and she was like, "You have a real active childhood." It's like, "I do love sport, thank you for that," because I love all the activities, which includes playing Banjo Kazooie. And you learn different skills where you can hold Kazooie like a gun, and he shoots eggs at the monsters. And it's really silly, but Banjo has a really stupid sounding voice, and he does this thing and it's like, "G-huh." And I think I can do it pretty good, that one wasn't my best. I'm not going to do it again, but when I said the G sound, I just wanted it to continue on into the Banjo Kazooie sound. So if you're listening and you also played Banjo Kazooie-
Lauren: Make the sound right now.
Rachael: Make the sound, throw a comment, let us know that you listened.
Lauren: Let us know how you think it's phonetically spelled.
Rachael: Yeah, G-huh.
Lauren: We're just going to have comments on YouTube and Spotify with just a bunch of weird letters. G U H what?
Rachael: Yeah, I think it's G U H, G Huh?
Lauren: Okay. Okay. Back to the portfolio.
Rachael: Back to the portfolio.
Lauren: You asked about, yes, I think it's fine if you add those playful elements, as long as it's not taking away from the artwork. Do you have any other specific questions about, as you go into documenting your work?
Rachael: For sure. What would you include in an artist's statement? Because I have no formal art education, I've never done a peer review. What is it called when you give feedback?
Lauren: Oh, yeah, a critique.
Rachael: Critique, yes.
Lauren: So you could think about it like a artsy-fartsy version of ... like a slightly more pretentious version of your about me, on your website.
Rachael: Okay. Love that.
Lauren: You are giving a paragraph or two about who you ... the person behind the work. So the portfolio images are there to show the work, right, here's the art. And the artist statement is there to add context to the person who made it. So you're saying, "I'm Rachael," you might want to talk about the things that influenced the work that you create. For some people, that's the place they grew up, for some people that's life experiences that they had. You want to be explicit in saying, "My work focuses on themes of this, this, and this, and for these reasons, or I've been drawn to this," or you just want to add a little bit of context to, I feel like the thesis of your work.
Rachael: That makes sense.
Lauren: If you have that, and I'd be happy to workshop that with you.
Rachael: Thank you. Yeah.
Lauren: And then for your portfolio too, of your images, I don't know about an art portfolio for design, because mine is mostly client work. I usually add a sentence or two of description of what each project is, on each project page. However, at the bare minimum for you, of each piece that you have, if it has a title, the date that it was made, I think is helpful. And then the medium that it is, is usually what you will see in ... when I'm flipping through any kind of arts annual, or ceramics magazine is usually what they have. And dimensions, sometimes they'll put.
Rachael: Oh, right. Because if it's a piece that someone's going to buy-
Lauren: It helps to give context if your hand isn't in there for scale, it helps to give some context to how big a piece might be. Because online, similar to how there's a placelessness on the internet, there's a lack of scale on the internet, especially with a seamless backdrop, you really don't know how big something is unless you could see the grain of the ceramic or something.
Rachael: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's fair. Cool. Yeah, I'm excited about this, and it's so interesting, because I want to create this portfolio so that I can do ... I want to do art shows and bodies of work that have this storytelling aspect. I didn't even think about it being in a gallery where someone would buy something. I'm less focused on that, I just want to have commentary on these higher level thoughts in a very playful way. I feel like what I'll include in the artist statement, and I will take you up on the work shopping of it, is exploring the connection between personal growth and creative play. That is-
Lauren: Yeah, absolutely."
Rachael: ... all of my work. Yeah, fun. Okay. I think that's really helpful, I appreciate it.
Lauren: Yeah, it's like, I think recently I was scrolling on Instagram and I stumbled across, I think you follow Mudwitch, a ceramic artist.
Rachael: Yes.
Lauren: And I think were interviewed about ... it's tied into what they could have in their artist statement, about ... when I first came across their work, I'm like, "Oh, cute, wiggly shaped ceramics." But when I read the interview, I was like, "Oh, that's actually really profound about how the shapes of their vessels are inspired by the folds of a stomach being plus sized, and celebrating different shapes of bodies." And I was like, "Hell yeah. Yeah. That's amazing."
Rachael: Absolutely.
Lauren: And that helps to add so much more richness and context to ... it makes me want one of their pieces more because of that.
Rachael: Yeah, the intentionality behind why you're doing it this way. And it looks on the surface very colorful and silly and playful, which is why I was drawn to them. I have two of them, they're really high-qual, great, my favorite mugs. I mean, I would expect nothing less from a professional ceramicist. But yeah, that was really beautiful. And like you said, adds so much richness, I really like that term, because you can feel more of the care and intention, knowing that backstory.
Lauren: And I think with an artist statement, it's a little bit self-indulgent where you get to reflect, and we know you love reflecting.
Rachael: Love it.
Lauren: And you basically ... as an artist, people are coming to the art for, yes, the objects that are made, but also the artist's story is inextricably tied to the art. And I identify more as a designer than an artist. But the same thing goes for the kind of work that I do, because people talk about it more as a personal brand, in my neck of the woods. But the art and the person who made it, people are curious about the person who made it, and it adds some context to what was made. Absolutely.
Rachael: Yeah. And I feel like I have been impacted by art that people have made, where I'm drawn to it because I'm like, "Oh, this is cool. It's pretty, it's aesthetically pleasing," which of course is important to me. We talked about our spaces in the last episode, aesthetics matter to me, and affect how I feel, whether it's art or my home or my clothes. But also being drawn to something aesthetically, and then reading the story behind it and understanding the deeper meaning, I feel like I have ... that impacts me a lot. When something really resonates, I think that's magical. And so being able to have a multi-layered impact on the person who's absorbing your art, it feels good to me.
Lauren: Absolutely.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: Cool. Okay, fun. This was fun. We kind of were not really sure how this episode was going to go, but I'm happy with it.
Lauren: Yeah. And one thing I was going to say too about ... the last portfolio tip I'll give you is, once you photograph everything that you've made, you might go through different curatorial choices, where maybe you do have textiles and ceramics, but maybe you start to notice that like, "Oh, during that six month period, I actually made a small body of work within my bigger body of work." And maybe you organize your portfolio into projects where it's like, here's the, I don't know, smileys, smiley faces, or here's the mugs. There's so many different ways you can curate it, so don't feel limited to just mediums.
Rachael: I like that a lot, because I feel like I get into kind of a through line in the-
Lauren: Little eras, yep.
Rachael: ... I am doing a lot of stripes right now, but I'm thinking of it as interrupting patterns, because I'll do one or two stripes that are different color, and I'm thinking actively about intentionally interrupting the patterns that I'm having in my brain, and trying to kind of set a stop to them. But it also, on the surface looks like playful and silly and fun. So I do think I do that too with my sewing a lot. Interrupting patterns is something that I love to do.
Lauren: I like that.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: There's something there.
Rachael: And I think it relates a lot to my personal growth. Okay, that feels good. I'll probably be like, "Lauren, can you look at this, please?"
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: Once I get it.
Lauren: Absolutely.
Rachael: Yeah. Yay. Thank you.
Lauren: You're welcome. And okay, yeah, with portfolios, having a second set of eyes on your stuff is really helpful, so I'd be happy to take a look.
Rachael: Thank you.
Lauren: That's so much of what design school is, it's just critiques, sitting in a room with your peers, talking about the work.
Rachael: Do you offer that as part of your one-on-one coaching? If someone were to come to you with, "Hey, I put together this portfolio. Can you give me feedback?"
Lauren: Yeah. So with my one-on-ones, a lot of people will use it as portfolio reviews.
Rachael: Okay, cool.
Lauren: Because in an hour, that's a perfect amount of time to get really in-depth feedback.
Rachael: Love that.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: Okay. So what's the Portfolio Procrastinator course?
Lauren: Oh, so that's a thing I launch, maybe once or twice a year. It's coming back soon, actually. It is four weeks, and each week we focus on a different thing. It's basically a class plus accountability. So I only do it live, because the whole point is to beat the procrastination. I created the course that I needed, so I update my portfolio alongside everybody, so it's less of a top down ,and more of an along ... right next to you.
Each week we focus on a different task. So week one is doing a portfolio audit, where we go through our existing body of work. And this is where having either my eyes, or other classmates' eyes are helpful because everyone who's been doing this for more than a couple of years, has one or two projects usually towards the bottom of their portfolio that needs to go, but you're holding onto it because you're just like-
Rachael: "It was special."
Lauren: "It was special. It won an award in college," or, "It was my first freelance project." You just have a sentimental, it's for the same reason-
Rachael: An emotional connection.
Lauren: ... For the same reason you won't get rid of that one thing in your closet. Right?
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: And oftentimes you need the gentle nudge from someone you trust to say, "Hey, you've got all this great new stuff that you want to add." And again, I think that clarity is kindness.
Rachael: Yeah. Since you said that in one of our last episodes, I have been like, it's my mantra lately.
Lauren: I love it.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: It's very in line with spring cleaning, where it's just like, "Hey, what can we edit down and curate out, so it makes it easier?" It's a loving thing to do for the person viewing your portfolio, for them to see only the tip top, what represents you now.
And so that's week one. Week two, we then start to go through what we're going to be adding, and getting together images for what we're going to be uploading. So that's the real workhorse week. And then week three, we do copywriting. So writing your artist statement or about me, your contact page, any writing for the descriptions of the projects. And then week four is all about buckling down and uploading all the things to your actual website. So we don't start uploading anything till the very end, because we spend the first couple of weeks gathering, and then we sit down and upload to the site.
Rachael: Amazing. I didn't realize it was a four week course, that's awesome. Okay.
Lauren: It's still ... it's guided, but you don't have to do it in real time with me. Anytime during the week, you can do it, but it's just like you get a weekly email and a check-in, and a weekly office hours, where you can ask me questions or get feedback.
Rachael: Cool. Okay. So hopefully around the time that this episode releases, there'll be a wait list, or an actual launch happening.
Lauren: There should be a link, if all goes well, in the show notes.
Rachael: Perfect. Okay. Well, I think we're basically at time, that actually worked out really well. Yeah, like we mentioned at the beginning, Lauren and I are both opening up some one-on-one coaching opportunities. If you would like to book time with us individually, we won't be doing it together, but maybe not something we could do on the Patreon.
Lauren: That'd be wild to do joint. If you want to do a chaotic creative coaching session.
Rachael: It would be that.
Lauren: Let us know if you'd want that. That could be an interesting offering.
Rachael: I feel like that might be something that we could do in the Patreon.
Lauren: That actually seems like a Q&A style thing.
Rachael: Like a group thing.
Lauren: When I log on and we answer things together.
Rachael: Yeah. Cute.
Lauren: Okay, cool.
Rachael: We'll consider that.
Lauren: We'll drop the link to both of our links, to book sessions with us. If you want to brainstorm with either of us, but we both have different levels of expertise and other different things, so-
Rachael: Definitely.
Lauren: ... hit us up.
Rachael: And if you have capacity, join the Patreon. We have a few different tiers where we have discounts on our courses and offerings. We have Patreon exclusive materials, and then we have our super mega tier, where we have listener supported ads, basically, where we will talk about your project. Are you launching a course that you want us to talk about? You can sponsor an episode with that tier. And as always, please leave a review, share the episode with someone you think might benefit from it, and we'll see you next time.
Lauren: Thanks for listening. Bye.
Rachael: Bye.