Module 1: Why a Creative Career ?

In this module, we will learn about: • Is a creative career /self employment for you?• We put a spotlight on creative, self employed mind sets• Difference between a creative brain vs a business brain – Business

thinking/Creative thinking/ design thinking• Emerging trends in creative entrepreneurship• Describing your creative business• Creative Entrepreneurs, lessons shared

Module 1: Why a Creative Career ?

Module 1: Why a creative career ?

You are considering a creative career because you love what you do and you want to make a living from it…..

THIS TAKES COURAGE & PERSISTANCE……

This module is all about inspiration! It will enable you as an aspiring Creative Entrepreneur to find about the potential and emerging commercial opportunities in the sector.

It will inspire & convince you that a Creative Career is a good idea for you & help you to develop your ideas into new businesses.

Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney said, when a person is learning

to write poetry, they should not expect to be immediately good.

“The aspiring poet is constantly lowering a bucket only

halfway down a well, coming time and time again with

nothing but empty air. The frustration is immense, but you

must keep doing it anyway. After years of practice the chain

draws unexpectedly tight & you have dipped into waters that

will continue to entice you back. You’ll have

broken the pool of yourself.”

Why a creative career ?

What is creativity about ?“Creativity is about being proactive, about anticipating change in an ever changing world, about developing ideas and solutions ahead of the competition. In fact, down markets offer a great opportunity to fill gaps and take the lead”

Dianne Jacobs, The Talent Advisors, Melbourne, Australia.

What MOTIVATES you?

And now for the psychology that is fundamental to success ….• Why do YOU create?• Why do YOU do what you do?• What motivates YOU as a creative person?• What gets YOU out of bed in the morning?• What is it that gets YOU moving?• What do you want from your career? • How will you measure your success ?

A sense of purpose, that your work matters and makes a difference in the world, is one of the most powerful motivators you can

have.

Let’s answer some questions and get this down on paper (or on screen!)

**EXERCISE**

What do you create ? – please describe your creative business idea

in no more than 20 words.

What are the Creative Industries ?

For the purpose of this course we will take the 2015 UK Government

Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) definition which

describes the creative industries as:

"those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and

talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the

generation and exploitation of intellectual property" (DCMS 2001, p. 04)

Who is a creative entrepreneur ?

John Howkins, Author of the “The Creative Economy” tells us ‘creative entrepreneurs tend to be bright and value their

independence above all else.’ Essentially, creative entrepreneurs are investors in talent (mostly their

own). They include..

Artists, sculptors, designers, soap makers, photographers, web designers, furniture makers, film/video producers,

writers, craftspeople, animators, musicians, product, software designers, textiles, interior designers, jewellery designers, arts administrators,

filmmakers, writers, media specialists, glass/metal artists and… many more

• Wants greater freedom to control his or her life and career

• 9 to 5 is not your idea of happiness, you want to have the freedom to do things your way

• Tends to burn out quickly while flying solo

• Stubborn and often impatient/in a hurry to get things done

The Self-Employed Mindset

Creative entrepreneurs are full of paradoxes.

They are: • both rebellious and conservative• humble and proud • self-deprecating and shy to very confident• both extroverted and introverted• very passionate about their work, and can be

extremely objective about it as well• smart yet naive at the same time• responsible and irresponsible

What do you think ? Sound familiar ?

Essential traits for self employment

•Self-reliance•High motivational levels• The desire and willingness to take the initiative•Driven by a strong need to achieve•Enough self-confidence•Good physical health and great energy levels•Perseverance•Competitiveness•Great business and industry knowledge,•Organization and management capabilities,•Resourcefulness•Problem solving •Vision

QUIZ –https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/entrepreneur-toolkit/business-assessments/pages/self-assessment-test-your-entrepreneurial-potential.aspx

Business thinking/Creative thinking/ Design thinking

Module 1: Why a Creative Career ?

Mindset: Design Thinking

Left Brain

Rational and Structured

Focused on analysis

Dealing with well-defined problems

A problem is something to get out of the way

Mistakes are not tolerated

Analyse > decide

Focused on parts of the problem

Using both sides of the brain to solve problems

Switching at will between rational & structured to a more emotional & intuitive

Iterating between analysis and synthesis

Dealing with ill-defined problems

A problem is the start of the process

Mistakes are learning experience

Analyse > Ideate > prototype > evaluate > decide

Zooming in and out, taking the problem apart to reassemble it in a different way

Right Brain

Emotional and intuitive

Focused on synthesis

Dealing with undefined problems

There is no problem

There is no mistakes

Perceive > ideate > decide

Holistic Focus

Business Thinking Design Thinking Creative Thinking

Let’s look at the creative brain and the business brain ….

Let’s look at the creative brain and the business brain ….

BUSINESS THINKING

CREATIVETHINKING

When business thinking and design thinking meet and overlap we get DESIGN THINKING at the intersection :

Balanced thinkingA switch between the twoFocus on connectionsProblems seen as opportunity Mistakes as new learning

We love this article from Brain PickingsThe 10 Stages of the Creative ProcessListen to your hunches, sponge up ideas, let them marinate, and know when you’re done.

Click to access https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/02/19/tiffany-shlain-creative-process/ And watch from filmmaker Tiffany Shlain, founder of the Webby Awards here: https://youtu.be/5IRr-JkIwlc?list=PLkNaMIsI8oSCCknemN6FelYOV0OTfBaNT

Emerging trends in creative entrepreneurship1 CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS AS DISTRUPTERS

2. CREATIVITY FOR COLLECTIVE GOOD

3. THE RISE OF CREATIVE EXPERIENCES

Module 1: Why a Creative Career ?

Let’s review new trends in emerging creative entrepreneurship ….

1. CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS AS DISTRUPTERS

The buzz words of disruption Breakthrough Game changing Faster Cheaper Better

Creativity is about being proactive, about anticipating change in an ever changing

world, about developing ideas and solutions ahead of the competition. In fact, down

markets offer a great opportunity to fill gaps and take the lead.

Dianne Jacobs, The Talent Advisors, Melbourne, Australia.

Here we put a spotlight on some inspiring creative disruptors

3 Irish Artists/ designer/makers featured on the FORBES list are:

Helen Steele From a converted duck hatchery in rural Co. Monaghan fashion designer Helen Steele creates wearable art – her process involves splashing paint on to a canvas, from which she makes her digital prints for her free-form clothing – which has been collected by the likes of Diane von Furstenberg.http://www.helensteele.com/

Creative entrepreneurs the disrupters – SUGRU

the disrupters Kilkenny native Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh, founder of stylish mouldable glue business Sugru was named by CNN as number three in the ’7 tech Superheroes to watch in 2015’.

Her business made #22 on TIME Magazine’s top 50 inventions in 2010.

www.sugru.com

Creative entrepreneurs disrupters - Mamukko • Mamukko is all about upcycling, creativity &

passion, uniqueness, originality & consciousness!

• Proudly built on a family’s heritage as 4th generation creators & designers.

• One of their passions (apart of DJ – ing, original oil landscape painting, djembe drumming) is the collection of unique & original sails, life rafts, leather, textiles & upcycling them into boutique manufactured one offs & limited edition eco – friendly sailing, fashion & lifestyle bags in their workshop in Kinsale, Ireland.

• They use traditional leather craftsmanship & skills inherited from their parents to upcycle & circulate their textiles creating an eco-eclectic & original style of their own. https://www.mamukko.ie/

RECENT HIGH PROFILE DISTRUPTERS (technology led)

From Sweden…..

• Spotify -Online music with Spotify, an online music service that lets users stream millions of tracks on demand to their computer or mobile device. It offers a monthly subscription service, or a free version supported by advertising. Founded in 2006 in Sweden by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, the company is now multinational. It launched in the US in 2011.

• Skype -software application that allows users to make free voice and video calls over the Internet . Skype was founded in 2003 by two entrepreneurs, Niklas Zennström from Sweden and Janus Friis from Denmark. Skype was acquired by eBay in 2005, and sold to Microsoft in 2011.

Exercise: How can you bring positive disruption to your creative business start ?

Netflix – changes the way we consume TV

Uber – an app that has

changed transportation

2. Creativity for collective good Setting Goals – What do you want from your career? What motivates you?A sense of purpose, that your work matters and making a difference in the world? Have you considered social entrepreneurship/social innovation, typically creativity ventures that can • Improve our quality of life• Tackle a social challenge• Spark a sense of community within our creative/cultural

economy/ create awareness• Create projects that make a difference through education,

resources, experience, & exposure for creative individuals

Heard of Social Innovation ?Social innovators are setting up new businesses & projects because they want to tackle social issues.Social Entrepreneurship means identifying or recognizing a social problem and using entrepreneurial principles to organise, create, and manage a social venture to achieve a desired social change.

ASHOKA IRELAND believes that the best way to tackle social challenges is to identify, support and nurture the people with the best ideas, proven to change society for good.

Ashoka is the largest global network of leading social entrepreneurs (Ashoka Fellows). Since 1981, they have elected and supported over 3,000 Fellows working across 82 countries.

Exercise :CHECK OUT www.ashoka.ie for great examples of social innovation concepts

• Founded in 2013 FoodCloud is a social enterprise that connects businesses with surplus food to local charities and community groups in Ireland through a technology platform

• FoodCloud is a community-based social enterprise that brings food businesses and charities together with an easy-to-use and reliable platform, matching those with too much food with those who have too little.

• They believe in building a culture where everyone has the chance to celebrate good food and learn about its benefits & believe communities built on shared food can be rediscovered.

• Food cloud video profile: https://vimeo.com/188539918 www.food.cloud

Examples

Suspended Coffee’s mission is to bring communities together in hope, to inspire and empower people to change lives, and to restore faith in humanity.

John M. Sweeney is the founder and chief kindness officer of the Suspended Coffees movement. The tradition began in the working-class cafés of Naples, where someone who had experienced good luck would order a sospeso, paying the price of two coffees but receiving and consuming only one. John created a Facebook page in March 2013, & the Suspended Coffees movement was born. Soon after that, something amazing happened. People loved the page and all of the heartwarming stories being shared daily, as well as the simple but amazing gesture of a suspended coffee.

https://www.facebook.com/SuspendedCoffeess

design for greater good

Connecting with community.

Dyslexie: A font for people with dyslexia

Dutch graphic designer Christian Boer has designed a font to help those who suffer from dyslexia to minimise reading errors. Drawing on his own experience of dyslexia he made custom tweaks to all the letterforms and punctuation of the western alphabet. An independent study by the University of Twente in the Netherlands has concluded that it is effective in minimising dyslexic errors.

His typeface which has been designed to circumnavigate some of the problems dyslexic people have when looking at letterforms. So by making the undersides of letters bolder, lengthening ascenders or descenders, increasing the size of openings and tipping some characters to stop them resembling each other, Christian has created a fascinating solution to a problem that affects up to one in 10 people here in the UK alone (according to the NHS).

This v

ideo is a good place to start to find out more about Christian’s extraordinary achievement.

https://youtu.be/VLtYFcHx7ec

MYVILLAGES.ORG

Myvillages is an international artist initiative founded by Kathrin Böhm (Ger/UK), Wapke Feenstra (NL) and Antje Schiffers (D) in 2003.

Their interest is the rural as a space for and of cultural production and the continuously evolving relationship between urban and rural practices, geographies and realities.

Myvillages activities range from small scale informal presentations to long term collaborative research projects, from work in private spaces to public conferences, from exhibitions to publications and from personal questions to public debate.

•

Setting Goals –What motivates you?Let’s look at Cats Not Ads Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, a community action group Citizens Advertising Takeover Service (CATS) funded its first mission — replacing all the advertising at a tube station with photos of cats. And not pictures of cats selling something or cats promoting something — just plain cats. For two weeks in September 2016 , every turnstile, escalator panel and poster at a London tube station greeted visitors with a photo of a cat. Their mission ?To "inspire people to think differently about the world and realise they have the power to change it."

http://weglimpse.co/catsnotads/

3. The rise of creative experiences

Drop Everything is a contemporary cultural biennial event that takes place on Inis Oírr, an island off Ireland’s Atlantic Ocean. The event features national and international participants from a cross section of the creative industries, and the weekend is designed to encourage and instigate creative exchange between artists and audience alike. Drop Everything is about getting excited by new ideas and taking the time to consider them. It’s for people who do and people who want to.Drop Everything is created by everyone who contributes, whether that's with their art, their skill, their time or by funding the event. http://dropeverything.net/

The rise of arts and music festivals Connecting with the community.

The Five Glens Arts Festival is an annual celebration of the arts in North Leitrim that takes place in August each year. It aims to showcase a great variety of performances, exhibitions and workshops for people of all ages and interests.

http://www.fiveglens.com/art/ https://phaseonefestival.com

PHASE 1 MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL

Phase One Festival is a music and digital arts festival which takes place in Carrick on Shannon , Leitrim, Ireland over the Easter weekend. A series of FREE creative masterclasses with National and International pioneers in the field of digital arts and music.

Festivals are big business

Realising talents and making your creativity pay

Module 1: Why a Creative Career ?

Realising talents and making your creativity pay

Forget about ‘earning money, it sounds too much like drudgery. Instead, focus on creating value.’ [..] ‘One of the many wonderful things about being creative is that there is virtually no limit to the value we can create for others, and therefore potentially no limit on the money we can generate’Motivation for Creative People: How to Stay Creative While Gaining Money, Fame, and Reputation; Mark Mc Guinness.

Be Inspired by Wishful Thinking

Mark Mc Guinnesshttp://www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/mark-mcguinness/ Mark is a facilitator of others’ creativity. He is a poet and the author of a string of successful e-books and two of the most popular creative business blogs in the world, Wishful Thinking and at LateralAction.com.

Mark devised 5 creative career models :1. Lucrative art: getting paid to produce works of

art or entertainment 2. Commercial creativity: getting paid to produce

creative work that solves practical problems3. Day job and night flights: taking a job to pay

the bills and using it to fund your creative work doing everything from teaching to working shift jobs

4. Symbiotic creativity: working in two complimentary creative fields. One to bring in the money, the other to create work you love.

5. Creative entrepreneurship: using your creativity to grow a thriving business

DIG DEEPER EXERCISE: You answer these thought-provoking & useful set of questions. They will have great value in your business plan.

What’s the attraction of this project? What’s its purpose? What difference with it make if I/we succeed? What are the opportunities for learning from it? Will it provide anything other than making a profit?

Thinking of collaborating ?Have we worked together before? How did it go? What commitments are we making to each other? What will happen if anyone fails to deliver on their commitment? Will any of us be competing with each other? How can we facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing? What kind of encouragement and support do we need to provide for each other? What feedback loops do we need? If I/you have any concerns, what’s the best way to raise them?

Interested in more about creative collaborations

Check out Module 6

Co-working: How do we work? Creative Clusters/

Creative Hubs

Is the project aligned with my/our personal values? Will all involved be comfortable with the work or need additional support to create it? What’s in it for me/us? Who will own the intellectual property created? Who will be credited? Will we be applying for funding/ competitions/awards ?

Creative Entrepreneurs – lessons shared

Module 1: Why a Creative Career ?

Creative Entrepreneurs – lessons sharedLesson - Do what you love The challenge of creative work is to develop and know yourself as a person even as you learn about yourself as a creator; What results is your voice, your signature style, your brand. And that is what’s original. Watch Una Burke,designer share her journey – her love of her craft is so clear and her business advise so practical.

www.unaburke.com People buy people Be your brand – Explored more fully in Module 4- Your Marketing Strategy.

Lesson Understand that everything is connected - network, meet, co-create Humans are wired to connect and communicate. To truly understand others, you must work to understand yourself, and vice-versa. Fuse this understanding with skill, your being & your art. Take the personal and make it universal. To stay innovative you need to stay inspired. Despite the plethora of information available behind the comfortable confines of your computer screen, you risk mental stagnation when you fall into predictable routines. Get out into the world and into the contexts that people are using your product – you’ll be surprised how quickly unexpected opportunities are revealed.

Lesson - Look for new approachesNo money but a great idea ? Use crowd-funding (see Module 5- Funding for Creatives Crowd funding is more than just the money, it starts a conversation with your community and audience. People want stories, and they want to see your development through different media and formats. Carefully craft and share your story. http://www.crowd101.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/crowdfunding-for-business-funding-ideas.jpg

Lesson - Understand the marketThe is nothing like real time market research – get out there and sell. Markets/pop up exhibitions, showcases are an invaluable way of gauging what’s going on, gain early and real market experience; see what sells, at what price and get feedback on our products. Lots more in Module 3!

Lesson - Be resourcefulLots of great creative businesses start at kitchen tables, in garages and spare rooms. The reality is you may need to juggle a part time role or freelance while you build your business. More in Module 2. No Guts No Glory failed to secure a bank loan in the early days. With just £300 they printed their first run of t-shirts, Nathan and his partner Hayley relied on the help of friends to build their online shop, gathering support of their local community by championing regional artists and makers.

https://www.etsy.com/market/no_guts_no_glory

Another great case study of launching a creative business on a small budgetDutch creative Jeroen Smeets wanted to run a project that combined two of his passions – art and travel. He launched The Jaunt in 2015. http://thejaunt.net/ “Through a friend I heard about a Danish artist who had asked people to financially contribute to a trip he wanted to make to Iceland, and in return he would deliver a set of prints to them,” says Jeroen. “Traveling is a huge source of inspiration for many artists. I wanted to take that principle and make it into more of a platform.”

What a great business model …Working on the premise of taking established artists to cities they have not visited before, The Jaunt offers an opportunity for artists to find and seek inspiration in the culture and surroundings of their location, inspiring the production of a limited edition print.Prospective buyers can participate in the creative process through The Jaunt blog, which documents each artist’s experiences, whilst the concept of buying the artwork ‘unseen’ finances the trip and print production.

Lesson - Don’t be afraid of failureTreat your business experience as a journey. Value the process you go through. Be agile. If an approach is not working, change it – quickly.

Lesson - Focus on the customerFocus on consumers who will enjoy or benefit from your enterprise and are willing to pay for this.

Lesson - Be prepared for hard work and tough timesThe first few years of any business can be challenging. Factor this in from the start. For example, you might need other sources of income to support yourself (Lots more in Module 2). Prepare a business plan (Module 3) and plot where you’re going. Stay on course.

Exercise - Describing your creative business

Own your strengths and weaknesses

What do you do ? 20 words

How do you stand out from the crowd ? List 5 evidence points showing your true uniqueness

Next up …..Module 2 Creative Business Models and Emerging Trends Designing your life - Exploring the Freelancer Economy Time to embrace a Slash career. What this means for you today?New platforms for pairing talent with businessesLooking at models of best practice coming out of Ireland, UK, Poland & SwedenSpecialist Design & Creativity summits essential for learning & Networking