Hi, My name isTanya Smirnova

This presentation made for the Pecha kucha research

activity for MA Digital media management course in Hyper

island in manchester

2013

Photo source: tapua (c)

One year ago, my life was full of big and important projects but all these projects weren’t important for me. They were important for my boss, for my clients or at least it seemed to feel like that.I was a project manager.

Life is a box

Picture source: tapua (c)

My life was the same every day: Wake up, breakfast, one hour to get to the office, then around 12-13 hours at work, and than one more hour in Subway... After that you just want to Rest In Peace on your bed because you are exhausted. My life was full of boxes.

Beliefs

Quality of MY work

Add values in peoples lives

Trust and transparency

Team is everything

The problem started to grow when I realized that my beliefs in my life were so far of what I was doing and it was very frustrating.

Time for change“Choose a job you love, and you will

never have to work a day in your life.”

(c) Cofucius

Picture source: www.invisiblebooks.com (c)

I really like this quote. That’s why I decided to find my passion and my own Path.However, I didn’t know what I love and what I was passionate about. This was the starting point of my journey.

Freedom

Photo source: tapua (c)

I started with embracing Freedom and quit my job, I become freelancer and created my team.At the beginning, it was a team with responsible people and we just simply worked together. Without any goals or purpose.But I still felt that I need more.

How I realize that Digital is a right choose?

Picture source: tapua (c)

It was a moment when I was in Helsinki, in an airport, and my client from Moscow called to ask about final version of a presentation. The presentation was with my designer in Bali, I called her via Skype and asked her to put the presentation in Dropbox and share it with client. In 15 minutes, I was set to board my next flight.

Digital Technology

Picture source: www.citnow.com (c)

In that time I realized that Digital Technology can change my life. That’s how the Digital world become my passion.The key is that you need to find your passion and do what you love. You will then understand what to do and what your next steps are.

Potential

Picture source: tapua (c)

I decided to see what I actually had done for the last 4 years and where is my potential - potential is not an endpoint but a capacity to grow and learn.As you can see, I grew fast with numbers of projects and people in my team and I also learnt a lot quickly in digital agencies.So what’s next?

Future of Digital Agencies

Problem solvers

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I searched about the future of Digital Agencies and I found that there are no Agencies in the Future. Experts from Agencies will act as problem solvers, rather than message crafters. It will be a future of experts and consultants.

I decided to be a business consultant in Digital Technologies That’s why I decided to be a business consultant in Digital Technologies. I understood how powerful it is to help people and how happy I am when I’m doing it. I decided to become an expert. The decision was made but what’s next? Am I ready to build my own brand?

Picture source: vey-boretta.livejournal.com (c)

At the beginning, I thought that I have everything I need (all tools, like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, even my own website). But everything was so jumbled up. I didn’t have a strategy - I was randomly creating a lots of content, my networks didn't have any connection with each other, etc.

What do you think is my current profession?

Picture source: tapua (c)

I’ve conducted a research and asked my friends: What do they think is my current profession? Half of the people said that I am a project manager and I am doing something with social media. People simply don’t know what exactly I am doing and it is not even close to being an Expert =)

Picture source: www.123rf.com(c)

What do I need to do? I needed to rebrand myself (!) It is a challenge to control my online personal presence. When the information appears online, it becomes permanent and widely accessible and the ownership of online information is difficult to control.

Picture source: www.hbr.org  the lean start-up model (c)

So you really need to know what do you want to say to people? I decided to use the lean start-up model and at the beginning of this model, you need to summarize all your ideas in a framework called a business model canvas. The Second step is called “get out of the building” and test your ideas.

My Purpose: Add values in peoples lives

Picture source: wallpaperstock.net (c)

I looked at my principles and created key messages accordingly. First, is adding value in peoples lives. It is something that Universe has been doing for me for the past 25 years and now it is time to return the favour.

What’s the difference?

Trust and transparency

Quality of my work

Picture source: www.vitameen.net (c)

Second, is the quality of my work, it is built on the right questions. I'm the type of person that if you ask me what’s the right question and I don't know the answer, I'm gonna tell you that I don't know. But I know how to find it. This is about trust and transparency.

Team is everything

Picture source: www.savetheants.com (c)

Team is everything (!) I started to build a culture with my team, to create an environment where we can learn, grow and implement our potential. As a first step, I asked them to write their personal goals and how our team can help them to achieve their goals to move forward.

Picture source: kevinwynne.wordpress.com (c)

From inside to outside: If you want to be an expert, you need to be a part of expert-communities and even build your own community around you. It is not only your team or clients, it is also mentors and coaches that YOU need to find for YOU.

Picture source: facebook.com – screeshot (c)

For example, in Facebook, I have a lot of different people but most of them can talk only in English or in Russian. So what do I need to do? Simply, I need to create groups of people, within of my page, and define all the content between these two groups. Community and connections are important and it is especially important how you use them.

Picture source: www.firstnorth.org (c)

Now, it’s just the beginning: I want to be a business consultant in Digital Technologies. I know my Purpose and values. I know I have a beautiful team. The Next step is prototype and test my brand to finalize the shape of it and continue to grow.Thank you (!)

story about power of social media

I decided to post my presentation online and then A chAIN OF UNEXPECTED EVENTS OCCURRED...

– In 5 days I got 18 305 views. – My presentation was in top of the most popular presentation of the week on slideshare.– I received a lot of random messages through my social networks with thanks from people.– I’ve got two offers to be a consultant for business (one in Russia and another one in america).

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References