In my previous post I talked about a possible pivot in career direction and concluded with that I'm still attempting to do about 5 billion things at once. In this post I want to talk about what projects are inspiring me that I'm attempting to work on. This is like I mentioned, more a way for me to track what things appear to be long term passions of mine. Hopefully this will also help me see more clearly how these projects fit together and how I can integrate them with each other.
* Side note, I recently came to the conclusion that something I should be prioritizing asking God to help me combine all my different passions, projects and skills into a viable business that earns me enough to life off of.
Anyway, let's get into the many things I'm currently working on:
Recently I started getting fed up with Instagram, Threads & TikTok. Mostly feeling like they were frying my brain, regardless of how much I cut down my daily time spent on these apps. The other factor was that no matter what I posted on these apps, all I got was crickets. Frankly I probably could've put more effort in to be more consistent but it just didn't feel worth it. It always just felt like I was working towards an arbitrary goal post that I couldn't even see. Overall being on these apps felt like they just had a more negative impact on me. So hence why I deleted all my accounts and decided to start posting on YouTube instead. There's few reasons for this:
1. I've wanted to start a YouTube channel for ages but have always been too intimidated to post anything.
2. I was making short reels for IG & TikTok anyway so why not just post those on YouTube instead and easy into video creation that way.
3. I've always had a much healthier relationship with YouTube.
4. YouTube seems to be a better platform for long-term growth, and honestly I'd rather have my audience be the type of people who rather spend their time on YouTube (PS. this is merely a personal preference).
Point is, I'd rather start creating for a platform that I've been wanting to get into for a long time than waste my time on platforms I don't enjoy.
Similar to YouTube, Pinterest feels like a more long-term option for growth online. It's also just a platform I personally enjoy using more than some others, and it feels a bit more relaxed, like Instagram was 10 years ago. This is also where my content-journey started - I was unsure about what type of creative business I wanted to build so I just decided to start posting on Pinterest and from there I've kinda just been experimenting with different things and seeing what sticks. It's a bit of a visual mish-mash of a bunch of different things I've been doing but it helps me see visually that I haven't just been doing nothing.
- Surface Pattern Design Licensing
Shortly after I started posting on Pinterest, I started designing surface patterns again (I say again because it's a skill I learnt in fashion school and kinda forgot about for a while). It kinda just evolved from me doing other design type things in Illustrator. Which then lead me into researching how to monetise these designs of course. Which of course lead me to Print on Demand and Stock sites. I've uploaded my designs onto 1 POD site and 2 stock sites. I haven't made any sales yet, but to be fair I don't think I've done enough work yet to be found or become half decent at it yet. But I continue to create new designs. I've also been considering sending a small portfolio to some clothing brands and seeing if they want to license any of it or have any custom designs made.
- Portfolio (design work and dancewear stuff)
On the topic of pitching my work to brands, I figured having some sort of portfolio of my work to show people might be necessary. Funny how I've spent almost 4 years doing creative work but never compiled a portfolio. Anyway, this seems to be a bit of a struggle as a lot of the advice I'm finding is to only show a small portion of your work to a company that will resonate to the specific work you're wanting to do for them. Obviously since I'm trying to do 5 billion things at once and can't seem to pick just 1 thing to do, this is a challenge. Especially since ADHD makes it difficult to distinguish between what's important or not. Anyway, I'm trying to focus more on taking action here than overthinking it. Once I have a bunch of different work together, then I can narrow it down for specific pitches.
- Technical drawings/tech packs (but for dancewear)
Another thing I discovered when I started putting together my portfolio, is that I could add technical drawings for clothing here. I then realised I could also add these to my stock contributor accounts for people to purchase as well as offering this as a freelance service to clothing brands. I haven't done much here but I plan to start with creating a range of dancewear technical drawings since dancewear seems to be my design niche and where I have the most experience anyway.
- Pitching my costume work to theatres
Speaking of most of my experience being in dancewear, I considered looking for some type of work relating to costume/wardrobe departments in theatres and such. Also haven't done much with this besides starting to compile a separate portfolio of dancewear I've made. I'm hoping if I can send this to theatres or production companies it might get me a foot in the door somewhere. As I say, I'm not sure where I'm going with this but at this point in time I'm just trying to take action and see what sticks or goes somewhere.
On an entirely different topic, I've recently become intrigued by the idea of building websites. It's a thought I had a while back while I was updating products on the website for the dance studio I work for. Although that alone can get tedious, I've also realized that the tech industry seems to be one of the industries that are the fastest growing in the time we live in. And also possibly one of the highest paying. Anyway, I considered a while back to build a website for myself to either have as a portfolio or an online store, but got intimidated and confused by web hosting and buying a domain and all such things. But after a conversation I had with a colleague last week I feel up for looking into this website building idea. And something he mentioned that I hadn't thought of was that considering I already studied fashion I already have a trained eye for what good design looks like (I'm heavily paraphrasing here but that's what I took from what he said). Anyway, knowing how to build a website will always be a beneficial skill, even if I use a website builder and only ever make and maintain a website for myself. (Although being reminded that I have experience in eCommerce makes me think it would be a waste to not learn more about building websites). Anyway, my next step here is deciding on the domain name I'd want and getting that first).
- Starting a dancewear brand
Something that ties into the idea of building websites, and funny enough an idea I thought of the same day that I got intrigued about building websites, is having a dancewear clothing brand. I've many times thought of starting a dancewear brand specifically, and this time I thought, "why not just start with 1 or 2 products and see if it takes off". I actually thought of handmaking small handbags, but maybe I could do dance bags. Or something else. But once again, it's something I've wanted to do for a long time and always told myself I couldn't because of xyz limitations and now I'm tired of letting limiting beliefs hold me back. The sooner I start the sooner I'll get to my dream entrepreneurial creative life.
In conclusion, writing everything here makes me feel a bit better like all my ideas aren't all completely unrelated. I'm also more clearly seeing how there might be disconnects between different ideas. There's also some links that I didn't even get to mention, like how technical drawings will be useful if I have a clothing brand and am having things produced. Or how I could use my textile designs to be printed on my products. Or how being able to build a business will make running an online store and brand easier. Or how the surface pattern designs can be used in websites. The list goes on and on.
Hopefully this inspires you to reconsider how your different passions could work together towards a greater project. Or maybe if you have only 1 project you're working on, how combining different skills and passions could enrich and make a project even bigger of an idea or business than you could even imagine.
That's all for now :)
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