Get connected.....

Continuing on from my tips and tricks last week I thought I would do something along the same lines but not necessarily Photoshop based. I talked before about networking (if you are an avid reader you will remember these posts some months ago) and thought it was important to talk about these again.

In the current climate you need to stay motivated and digg your heels in when it comes to not giving up! (Imagine a 3 year old refusing to put back the Percy Pig toy because damn you and the irate shop keeper, they will have it!).....

1st networking: DO IT.

There now thats over.

2nd, remembering who you are & why you are doing what you are doing! For a long time and even still now I get caught up in what other people think I should be doing, what their judgement of success is and how I should be achieving various goals (they have established) in my business. Then I remember, this is about me. I didn't quit a fairly well paid job in fashion to fail. No way. Like I said to someone yesterday, this is something that has to work because I have no other option and if I fail or end up losing what feels like a massive one sided fight right now, man I am going to go down kicking and screaming!!

Fat Talent among other things, has helped keep me motivated, remain in touch with people in a similar business (networking!!) and more importantly have fed my ideas hungry brain and helped to filter the bad from the good. The monthly fashion and music show has introduced me to a whole bunch of awesome people & opened up business opportunities that I just need to start utilising. So this sounds like a huge plug for FT and in a way it is, but you know what, I wrote this off my own back and I think their fab! If you can, get yourself involved with them or a similar organisation. Get yourself a mentor, get yourself connected and follow your instincts! (Well it has been a weekend of tributes with all this MJ stuff so thought I would join the riot!)


Signing off

Carli aka foto's

First Impressions.....

Apparently a first impression takes 7 further 'encounters' to alter the persons perception of the initial impression......ie.....be a miserable cow the first time you meet someone and people will generally believe you are like that unless you prove them otherwise on 7 consecutive occasions; and thats if you even get to do that after your down turned mouth, huffy attitude and crossed arms didn't warn them off for life.

Impressions therefore are crucial to your Networking and business development, and if you are self employed you are literally a walking billboard for your business and no matter whether chilling with friends or in a business environment, you still represent your product or service.  Pants sometimes, but just the way it is.  

In the creative industries, in my personal experience anyway, work and future commissions have certainly been received from networking, meeting new faces and generally getting yourself out there.  So being friendly and accommodating and also making sure you mention your business (but not force it down peoples throats!) is in my eyes, essential.  Also....thank those that have passed on your name.  Shout about those that you have networked with.  People love to have something or someone great to recommend....so give them someone to (you!) and also go on to recommend them.  

Another little fact I learnt today is people will generally moan about a company before they praise it, so bad impressions are more likely to get out than good one's.  For instance, I met a 'model' (apparently!) the other week who was snotty, bad tempered, rude and to be honest a big pain in my arse.  She refused to get in pictures, slumped her shoulders when we managed to staple her to the floor long enough to get some snaps and then continued to moan after the job about how poorly she felt and how she would photograph terribly anyway.  To this day, it still lights a little fire in my belly and makes me just a bit mad!

Anyway, I have not once mentioned to anyone all the positive things from that shoot, the other people involved, the fact we actually got some ok pictures and the wonderful rest of the day I had; the only thing I have mentioned, almost boasted about is this miserable b**ch that stood in front of me like a stroppey teenager.  I will not be recommending her or her agency, I will not be working with her again (even though she sent me a message a few days later wandering if I would be interested in doing some pics?!) and I will only remember her strops.  Basically, she ain't getting nothing but bad press.

I think that is evidence enough of the whole First Impressions Count lecture.

Foto x

Knowing me knowing you...

Well I thought it was about time you were better introduced to us at The Fat Blog....our team has had a few changes and we are even welcoming a new FASHION member in the next couple of weeks to bring up to the minute trends, fashion gossip and further focus on emerging talent within the industry.

For the moment however we are inviting you to ASK US ANYTHING!  Yes that is right, just ask us anything.  Now you can do this by commenting on this post and we will write straight back or alternatively you can write to fattalent@live.co.uk and we will post the question/s and the answers.  So....want to know what we had for breakfast, want to know how well the group really get on, want some advise on networking, singing your first song or becoming a model?  Ask the group or ask the team.....just get asking!!!

We look forward (if not a little nervously!) to hearing from you.....

fattalent@live.co.uk - Hit it with the questions!!

Working out.......

If you thought networking was easy....you must be joking! It takes A LOT of time and its none of this join 3000 websites then let the magic happen, oh no.  You have gotta go out there and get it.  Keep regular contacts with the groups, email or message the individuals that make those groups, post discussion topics, add images, keep your profile regularly updated and looking fresh....the list goes on.  It is hard work.

However it seriously is who you know not what you know in many cases.  

My first photography job was through a recommendation or rather an emergency!  A friends sister headed an events company and their photographer had dropped out, it was taking Pictures for the Lords Lunch charity gig in association with Special Olympics Britain, so it was a good gig.  Anyway, after a small heart murmur I did the job and ta da....more work from them.  Someone I met there then offered me further work, then my friends who also owned an events management company passed my details onto someone else.  I did that job and they loved it, so I did more work for them.  I met their web designers for this second job and we got on really well, so they then recommended me to one of their clients.  This is networking....this is who you know & not what you know.  Ok ok, if you were rubbish at your job or not good to work with naturally people would not pass on your name so I am in no way saying quality and customer service does not pay....it's just a good indicator as to how networking can make things happen.  

Now it is more important than ever to network....times are tough and in all honesty, I am feeling it baby!  So get your name on those sites and make the most of them; have a good business profile written, get testimonials or comments from companies or people you have worked with, add pictures or samples of the product / service you provide and make it easy as a big slice of apple pie for people to get hold of you.

Work it baby work it.......

Foto x

Perils of online social networking sites

Isn’t it the way these days, that you go out and inevitably somebody whips out the ubiquitous phone camera and all of a sudden you find yourself thrust in a fake pose. Everyone is pouting, sticking their chest out or doing something strange with their fingers – each with the hope that they’ll be caught at their best angle, and a ‘hot’ pic will be produced and subsequently tagged on facebook.

For some, facebook is an on-line shrine to the minutiae of our daily lives


Why do people feel the need to constantly update their status with the most mundane and pointless of sentences? Personally I couldn’t care less if someone was ‘watching Eastenders and wondering why their steak got burnt in the oven’. Even worse, I don’t need to hear other people’s opinion on that very status.
There has been such an on-line celebration of mediocrity that this is something of a phenomenon.

I don’t like the passive aggressive way in which someone will update their status saying how pissed they are at a ‘certain’ somebody. It could be their hapless boyf/ best friend/ sister whatever. Rather than addressing the issue face-to-face or via phone, they’re quite happy to have their 345 friends be privy to their emotions.

There’s no anonymity anymore. I’ve been tracked down by people who I haven’t seen since early high school, and who I’d happily not see again. I’ve had them asking me inane questions like ‘what I’ve been up to for the past 10 years’. I manage to fob them off, only to have them pop up on facebook chat, brimming with meaningless chatter. I don’t need to know that what they’re doing at 3:15pm is ‘ thinking about eating the last biscuit in the packet’.

I don’t give a f*ck

And what is it with the ‘recommended’ friend application?! Surely if I LIKED the person recommended, I’d have sought them out? Sometimes I see the recommended list, and I literally shudder and start rocking back and forth. Do I need to emphasise the fact that there was a REASON why we ‘lost touch’ when I was 16?! Let’s not re-live old PE and maths class experiences.

I find it endlessy ironic that we spend so much time on-line , leaving inane wall posts and uploading photos of one messy night to another, as if to illustrate that we have interesting lives. Surely if we did, we’d NOT be on facbeook??

I hate how vain it’s made me. before Facebook, I wouldn’t care if someone were to take a bad picture of me. I’d probably never see it, thinking it would be relegated to some old photo album, or even thrown away.
In this digital age, however , there’s a paranoia that some renegade photo will sneak up on facebook, and I’ll be tagged in a dreadful photo in which I’m trashed/ my hair has gone flat/ my skin Is a strange sallow hue and I’m definitely not caught at my best angle.
Normally I wouldn’t care, but when it gets uploaded to a site where my current flame, frenemies and those back home can see, then I aint happy!
This brings me to my next point: ex protocol. If you’ve updated your relationship status to ‘being in a relationship’ and the relationship goes horribly wrong, how do you judge then update the facebook status accordingly? Is it a break (in which case, we optimistically leave the status as is) or have we broken up, in which case we list ourselves as SINGLE.

So when the relationship does go Pete Tong, the ex needs to be deleted.

I’ve had to delete so many exes as I spend countless hours STALKING them. I look through their photos, hoping they’ve gotten fat, looking at their wall posts, cursing the hot blonde who has appeared alongside them in the latest barrage of tag pics.
I’ve also had to delete their friends, their relatives., only to re-ad them in 6 months time. it’s just one big mess

I just wish my life wasn’t so mundane at times, that I felt the need to log on.

Facebook has its advantages. It’s great way for me to stay in touch with my family and mates down under, it’s a great place to find out about events/ nights out etc, and if you want to procrastinate, what better site is there?
It’s only perilous mid break up / if a camera is whipped out on a big night/ and if you actually believe that all your 400 friends actually give a shit about you – when only half of them probably do.

FEATURE: Weave those webs......

Welcome to my feature! does this need an introduction? either way here it is....I am getting on the networking train so will be offering advice (lighter sense of the word) asking for advice, airing my thoughts, testing and also trying to get some networking going on the blog through this here feature.

People always said to me 'It's who you know, not what you know" well darn it they were and still are right. Networking is possibly one of the most valuable marketing tools ever! This does not just involve joining networking groups or social sites but it also involves being on a marketing mission all the time. By all means don't push too hard and bore the death out of all your mates but be prepared with business cards; let people know what you do and recognize opportunities. Don't be afraid to ask your friends or family about people they know or if your out and about & chatting to someone you think could be a benefit working with, ask. Suggest ideas for working together that benefit you both, know what it is with in your business that they could do with; and let them know what you could do for them. Give them a card and ask for one back, and don't leave and forget it. Email them or phone and follow up the invitation.

Joining networking groups online or in your local area is also clearly a great way to start. There are literally hundreds out there and to be honest I am still baffled by the number and diversity of each group. You only know what works for you once you have tried it though. But get looking and don't forget your roots (hello J-LO aka Jenny from the block!) - look around your local area or within your region at what groups or clubs meet. Communities offer strong networking opportunities and people like a friendly local face so work it baby. More on different groups and my experiences to date next week.......

For the moment - people like to recommend. Remember that. People like to offer advice!

(images courtesy of rich-cartoons.com)