anne hubben, creative career coach         anne@rubycreatives.com 917.834.0354

guest blogger: Deb Maltzman freelancing with Angela Denise

Monday, November 9th, 2009
 

I met Deb Maltzman when she was a much revered freelance ACD (copy) at Digitas. She also did the copy for my first website and did an amazing job capturing my voice immediately. I’ve always admired how in her career she seemed able to get consistent, steady work as a freelancer so that she could pursue things that she loved, like traveling. I’ve wanted to interview her for a while about how she pulls this off when I received this awesome promo piece that she did with her art director partner, Angela Denise. So I thought it would be interesting have Deb tell us how they do it. So here’s Deb:

I’ve been freelancing in NYC for 4 years.

About 2 years ago, I met Angela Denise (Art Director) while freelancing at Digitas. The first week she was there, we were thrown into the trenches on an insane pitch. Immediately, we clicked. We mostly liked the same stuff, and weren’t afraid to say when we didn’t. We were both quick decision makers, and could make stuff happen fast. And when one of us would lose our mind, the other one would become remarkably lucid.

And so, recently, we put together a self-promotion (debandangela.com) and decided to embark on a little freelancing adventure together.

How’s it going so far? After “launching” our site two weeks ago, we’ve already landed one gig. And hopefully, as you read this, we’ll be at one of the gigs we were approached about this week (fingers crossed).

Anne thought maybe we could give some advice to people thinking about becoming freelancers themselves. Here’s what we’ve learned:

You have to be seasoned. If you haven’t had a lot of experience working full-time in an agency, freelancing will be tough. That’s because you have to know how agencies tick. And the best way to learn that is working full-time.

You should be able to do work even if your desk is in the bathroom. I kid. But, seriously. Half the time when you’re freelancing, they have no computer and nowhere for you to sit. So if you need ideal conditions to get the job done, freelancing is probably not for you.

You have to be motivated to produce work on your own. Most times, freelancers don’t get the best assignments in the agency. And rarely do you get to produce anything. Do something to freshen up your portfolio – and enjoy the fact that there are no clients involved. (Check out this “spot” I shot while visiting my grandmother in Boca Raton).

You must never think you’re rich. Sure, as a freelancer, you get paid more. And sometimes it seems to pile up fast. But people tend to forget about those pesky things like taxes. And insurance. And two month dry spells.

You need be able to work with anyone and everyone. There are a lot of people out there who aren’t so great, and you’re going to be partnered up with them. Make it work. The luxury of switching partners (and complaining for that matter) doesn’t exist for freelancers.

You have to be able to live with the lull. Sometimes you’ll be so busy you’ll have to turn down jobs. And other times…crickets. On those days (or weeks) try not to drive yourself, and everyone around you, crazy. The work will come.

You must enjoy vacations and time off. Sounds like a joke, but it’s not. After all, one of the biggest benefits of freelancing is being able to take off for a month or two. The thing is, there’s no guarantee you’ll have work when you come back. If that thought freaks you out and ruins your vacation, there’s really no point in taking it.

You must visit debandangela.com. Be prepared to shamelessly promote yourself at all times. You never know where your next gig is going to come from.

Posted in advertising, collaborate, guest blogger, self promotion | No Comments »

guest blogger Patrick Lupinski: The Individual Is The New Media Network

Monday, November 2nd, 2009
 


Today I’m introducing something new where I invite creative people to blog and talk about a range of topics. Today my guest blogger is the very talented Art Director, Patrick Lupinski, who presently works at Adrenaline Works. I’ve asked him to talk about his take on what’s going on in advertising today.

A rebellion is currently brewing online and thousands are participating in it. It started a few weeks ago with an unsatisfied Bank of America customer who felt he was being mistreated by the monolithic company. Skyrocketing interest rates and additional miscellaneous fees that many have become all too familiar with. What did he do? He attempted to contact the institution via phone and several times in person only to be told nothing could be done. Fed up, the customer sat in front of his computer and spoke to his webcam recording his problem and published it on YouTube. A few days and thousands of hits later, action was taken and a bank representative called the customer and resolved the issue. One down, but what about the other dissatisfied customers with a computer at their fingertips?

Remember when companies would pour an unfathomable portion of their budgets into marketing? Splurging to create TV spots that had an over-tested but hollow message? This money allowed corporations to act as the gatekeeper for their message, protecting their reputation and sometimes withholding truth from the consumer. Ad agencies were responsible for crafting messaging to further promote products that may not have lived up to their pretty art direction and flowery words.

But, in the world we live in today, the gatekeepers walls are getting flimsy. The internet helps us keep in touch with loved ones, get the news 24/7, spend hours surfing the web and watching what some may think are pointless videos on YouTube, Google, Vimeo, etc. But, thanks to the more affordable costs of computers, digital cameras and other content building and publishing hardware, there are many opportunities for people to create their own channel. A large portion of our population just doesn’t trust that they’re getting the truth from the mainstream media anymore and so they’ve taken matters into their own hands. We have entered an era where the individual is now their own media network participating in and contributing to the true democratization of information.

When you log onto Facebook you’re immediately immersed in a streaming feed of the mesages, ideas, pictures and videos of hundreds of your friends. And that’s just the beginning as there’s also Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo and Doostang, to name a few. These online communities all provide a platform for people to publish their message and be heard.

But what is unique to our time is that within these communities, groups of like-minded individuals who are facing similar hardships, are forming. They are gathering around compelling issues of our time that are affecting them such as the economy, unemployment or healthcare reform. Many have been thrown into compromising situations where they are left questioning their realities within the context of this rapidly morphing landscape. Within these communities they find support.

I cringe when some compare our current situation to that of the Depression of the 20’s or the Recession of the 70’s. The current situation is far different than any other that we may have experienced in the past. Today we are empowered with technology and connected virtually when in the past we were limited physically to the community that we lived in. People sharing similar thinking can communicate from across the world transcending borders and building lasting relationships through their virtual realities. These relationships and feelings of empowerment have started to step out of the virtual and into the physical through various artistic and business collaborations such as on CollabFinder, personal microloans to people in developing countries via Kiva, programs such as TapIt benefitting healthier and responsible living, and recently large protests mobilized via Facebook and Twitter.

The Bank of America event is just one example of how the internet is bringing people together and providing a public forum to expose unfair practices. Some companies are taking note of this and realizing how big this “internet thing” actually is. Rather than spending a majority of their budgets on marketing and crafting messages as to why you should use them — some are going back and re-investing in the products or services that they sell. This is an amazing thing. For too long we were paying for mediocre products and services that told us to feel a certain way. We are no longer a throw-away culture as we once were. We just can’t afford to be and let’s face it…neither can the planet that we live on.

I’m very hopeful and excited for the future. Transparency will expose those companies that are lying and those that are actually selling a quality product through the human network that we’ve built. And I think that’s awesome. Besides it’s much easier to advertise a responsible product or service you can actually believe in.

Posted in advertising, guest blogger | 1 Comment »

guest blogger Kate Hubben on networking

Friday, October 9th, 2009
 


So much about the job search has changed over the last few years, but something that still remains important and relevant is face-to-face networking. Since I often focus on the digital kind, I’ve decided to go to someone I consider brilliant at networking and that’s my sister, Kate. Like many people I know, she is looking for full time employment and is tireless in her efforts. I recently went to an event with her and got to see her in action. It was inspirational and I’ve talked about it with several of my own clients to illustrate how to network.

Rather than report on her techniques, I thought I’d let her tell you directly. Kate has a background in TV, politics, development and nonprofit leadership. Although she’s not in a creative field, networking is networking, so here she is, my sister, Kate Hubben:

“Networking” conjures up images of business card shuffling, over zealous handshaking and cheap chardonnay. It can make the most earnest of us feel sleazy, but I choose to look at it as connecting with friends – making the effort to connect with new friends and reconnect with old ones. Some of these friends end up being great connectors and help me get new clients and find better jobs and the others are just great for support or a few good laughs. Here are a few ground rules that I follow:

1) Connecting is an act of love.

I only ask to meet with people in person that I know. They know more people and so on. If they feel I should meet someone else, they will let me know. So I call my friend or associate and tell them about my life. For me personally, I have a lot to cover……Over the last six months, I went on a diet, my boyfriend dumped me, I started doing yoga and oh yeah, my business went belly up and this prompted me to reach out to my friends and say “think of me.” I genuinely try not to have a firm agenda except to remind my friends that I am looking for a new job and that I could use some good news. Everyone loves to be the “king maker.” Identify those friends who you can imagine sitting around at a luncheon saying “I got Kate that job!!!!!” and those are the ones who are likely to pick up the phone and help you.

2) Everyone loves the underdog.

Don’t be a showboater. If you want help from friends, don’t tell them how rich or thin you are or how great your marriage is. Yuck. I love to help the friend who is down and will remember me when she is up again. She needs a friend who will be her ringside coach. Recently, I went to lunch with Julie, a newly displaced Ivy Leaguer who loves to talk in shorthand. She gossiped about her nanny, complained about her kitchen renovation and then asked me to introduce her to three specific contacts. The kicker was she did not pay for lunch. Julie is still looking for a job as far as I know.

3) Be specific

When you meet someone for coffee, don’t say that “you are a generalist” or “you love people” or you “can do a lot of things.” Say as much as you can about where you want to work, what you want to do, and what you want your job to look like. A bell will go off in my brain when someone tells me they are looking for a consultant who has fundraising experience. I remember that Cathy told me she wanted fundraising project work. VOILA. If you don’t give any specifics, no bells go off when an opportunity is presented.

4) Don’t wait for a meal.

Everyone is busy so if you want to make sure your friend knows you are looking for a job, make an appointment to see them in their office. “I wanted to respect your time and just let you know that I am looking for my next job and you sit in a lot of meetings all day where you hear about jobs.” I know that it is more fun to have lunch or coffee but it also takes a lot more time, people are busy and when you’re looking for work, you want meetings to happen sooner rather than later.

5) Pay it forward.

If someone asks you to meet with someone else or talk to their friend, do it. Several years ago, a young female engineer asked to have coffee with me. I did not have any idea how I could help, but I went and gave her advice about some civic activities she might pursue. Within a few years, I went to hear our U.S. Senator speak and she was his aide!!! When I went to lobby him about something, my call was returned quickly, I got on his schedule and she never forgot that I helped her. Not only is it the right thing to do to help others, but you NEVER know where people are going to land. An unemployed marketing professional could be a successful CEO one day. We just don’t know what the future holds.

6) To thine own self be true.

When we are roaming around making new friends, there is a possibility that we will follow advice from others instead of listening to our own internal voice. We may do it to make others happy or we may do it because we have lost our confidence but we must try hard to be true to ourselves. I will admit that after two cups of coffee and some compelling conversation, I once considered becoming a stockbroker, a pilot and an interior designer. None of these are good options for me, let me assure you.

So go forth and network. Just be safe about it and write hand written thank you notes.

Posted in communication, guest blogger, networking | No Comments »

guest blogger Lynette Chiu: on turning a corner

Monday, October 5th, 2009
 

This week, instead of an interview, I’m having a guest blogger – Lynette Chiu. Lynette is a beautiful writer so I thought it best to let her express herself on her own. I met Lynette a couple years ago and was immediately struck by her innate creativity, curiosity and intelligence. She was full of ideas and projects and it seemed like there were many directions she could take for a career. Since then, she worked as a copywriter at a small agency in DUMBO called Adrenaline Works and recently made a major change that she will share with us today.

Two months ago, shortly after turning 27, I moved to Hong Kong after living in New York City for nine years. I now live in a dorm room on a campus surrounded by mountains. Some days I feel like I’ve hit reset on my life, that my previous experiences exist in another, irreconcilable dimension. But most of the time, I think I wouldn’t rather be anywhere but here.

Three years into an accidental career as an advertising copywriter, I decided to apply for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. For a long while I had been grappling with dichotomies that had rendered me unable to do anything but what I was already doing. I was torn about living on the East vs. West Coast, whether I should stay in America or go abroad, and trying to be emotionally close to my family in San Francisco while maintaining some distance and my independence. I didn’t know how to resolve the disconnect between the writing I did for work and the personal writing I wanted to do, not to mention the urge to work vs. the sporadic beckoning of academia. I had reached an impasse.

And while I decided to apply somewhat on a whim for the grant that brought me here, the process of putting into words why a year in Hong Kong teaching English was what I needed to move forward in my life made it even clearer to me that I had been delaying a change like this for years. I was content and comfortable but not being challenged, and I missed traveling and proving to myself that I can adapt to unfamiliar surroundings. I told Fulbright how I wanted to rediscover and relearn the language I love through teaching and sharing it with others, reactivate and expand on the Cantonese I spoke fluently as a kid, explore the history of my father’s family in Hong Kong, and have space and inspiration for my primary outlet of self-expression: my own writing.

But when I knew I had been accepted and was done being giddy about it, my confidence dissolved and my fears kicked into overdrive. Up until I left the States all I could focus on was the things I was scared of losing by leaving. As I cleaned out my apartment, literally threw out years of junk I’d schlepped through several zip codes, I realized that I was not so much a physical packrat as an emotional one. What I was scared of giving up was not old ticket stubs and cheap toys or my rented apartment; it was a connection to the life I’d built for myself in New York and to the many people who made my life magical there. I wondered if, by going off on my own, I was choosing to alienate myself from “the beaten path” and all those who were cruising along on it. If I left New York, a place with such a short memory and where I fought to not get lost in the bustle, I was sure the Lynette-shaped void I left would consolidate itself within minutes, seconds.

I almost lost sight of why I had wanted to go abroad in the first place. In the worst moments, I thought of backing out and I was inconsolably sad to be going on this journey alone. I forgot that my world would be widening, that those who choose to live abroad, to leap into something like this, are a self-selecting group, and that by doing what I’m doing I’m putting myself on the radar of the like-minded people I’ve been wanting to meet and learn from. In my short time here, I have already met people who inspire me, who want to talk about the difficult things, the endless diverging paths we face.

And while I’m still struggling to find my places, people, and daily rhythm in Hong Kong, I know that I have already gained so much through this experience. When I’m lonely, or so frustrated trying to figure something out that I just want to cry, or missing someone who’s far away, I still don’t want to be anywhere else. I’ve had to trust that I can be my own support system, and remember that I have set something in motion, am tumbling forward opening doors for myself. Because even in the anchorless moments, I have to admit I feel absolutely alive.

I miss people in the States and parts of my routine in New York, but I carry all those people and experiences with me into everything I do here, and I wouldn’t have wanted to come here with anyone but myself. Facing my fear of the unknown and of losing the life I’d built was so humbling, but I was ultimately able to remember who I am.

I don’t know what I will do once my grant is over, if I will find a job in Hong Kong or return to the States right away, but this uncertainty doesn’t eat at me like the need for a change did. To those considering making a change, I would apply for more than one ticket out of the status quo, or have an alternate plan lined up. If you’re anything like me, you won’t enjoy recognizing your need for change and then having to wait a long time to start going forward with it.

I feel I’ve given myself a gift by initiating this experience, and I know I’m still at the beginning of what I think will be a long, fascinating adventure. To show myself I can change my life on my own has made me feel I could do it again; in fact, I think I can do most anything.

Lynette Chiu likes talking about food, language, and the bizarreness that is life. She can be contacted at dis0riented [at] gmail [dot] com. Illustration by Catherine Norrie.

Posted in change, guest blogger, interviews | 2 Comments »