Gratitude 2022

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022|

Our annual Thanksgiving holiday blog celebrates and shares our collective gratitude for health, family, and friendship as well as gratitude for our clients, candidates, and teammates.

In addition, the Artisan Creative a.team has compiled the following 22 gratitudes:

Grateful for being happily employed and working with a fabulous group of people.

Grateful for relationships (both personal and business)

Grateful financial stability

Grateful for my five-minute journal

Grateful for reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Grateful for eternal love

Grateful for coffee!!

Grateful for California’s weather

Grateful for our pets, who are the best WFH companions

Grateful for spending more quality time with my family and seeing them more this year

Grateful flexibility and longevity with Artisan Creative

Grateful for releasing my audiobook

Grateful for the good health of our parents as they age

Grateful for morning walks

Grateful for traveling again

Grateful for sunrises

Grateful for democracy

Grateful for technology that keeps us connected

Grateful for the time saved on cooking by using my air fryer this year

Grateful that meditation and journaling practices helped me stay level-headed through trying times

Grateful for the balance my partner brings to my life

Grateful for 26 years of Artisan Creative

 

Happy Thanksgiving 2022!

We are grateful for you and wish you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday!

 

How to Plan a Remote Holiday Gathering

Wednesday, December 9th, 2020|

For the past 24 years, Margaret Jung, our Senior Account Manager, has hosted a festive luncheon for our team during the holidays. Some years we had as many as 30 people gather, and some years we’ve had as few as 8. We come together to share our gratitude for one another, review our vision boards for the year, discuss goals we’ve accomplished, and cheer in the new year. Even though we have been a remote company for 10 years, we have always celebrated the holidays in person at Margaret’s home. Except for this year.

This is a year like no other, so our 25th-holiday party was like no other. Although it was different, it was great fun and we connected from the heart. After all, living our core value of creating trusted relationships means connecting, and what better way to connect than to celebrate one another! And, while we couldn’t be in person, we still laughed, exchanged gifts, and ate together (via zoom). This year, the silver lining was that our out-of-town teammates were able to be “in-town” and fully participate.

Here is how we planned ours.

  • Secret Santa gifts were organized via Elfster. We preselected budgets and set up our wish list.
  • Each team member selected a song to be played at the event and shared why it was memorable.  They selected a song from any period of their life as long as it either:
    • Brought joy
    • Energized
    • Was reflective

Music is such an uplifting and powerful connector and allowed us the opportunity to learn more about each other at a deeper level.

  • Secret Santa gift exchange took place, complete with oohs and aahs and zoom screenshots to capture the festivities.
  • Lunch was pre-ordered ahead of time so we could eat together.
  • Every year, each team member creates a vision board in January. We revisit them mid-year and then again at our December holiday party.  So at our zoom gathering, every person reviewed their vision board and shared their aspirations and the lessons learned from this year.
  • We shared our gratitude and wrapped up our gathering.

This year has been full of new learnings and wonderful, unexpected surprises. This party was no exception and it was the most fun two hours I’ve spent with my team in a long while. This team rocks!

If you are planning your first virtual party, I hope the above information is helpful.

Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season and a lively virtual gathering.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the 575th issue of our a.blog.

Gratitude 2020

Tuesday, November 24th, 2020|

Each Thanksgiving holiday season, we gather and share our collective gratitude and celebrate our clients and talent whom we work with all year.

This year, at a time that requires deeper reflection, has brought about ample opportunities to count our blessings.   To create this list, we gathered together (via zoom), focused on our enthusiasm and communication core values to share what is important to us now and what we are grateful for.

Here are the collected gratitudes from members of our Artisan Creative a.team:

  1. Gratitude for working with the finest talent and clients
  2. Gratitude for 25 years of being Artisan Creative
  3. Gratitude for the opportunity to impact careers and change lives
  4. Gratitude for the awareness of the good fortune and the ability to shift our work to the online world and remain connected
  5. Gratitude for the weekly family zoom gathering with our siblings, their families, and our parents (now in their late 80s). We have done this every Sunday for 1 hour without a miss since late March 2020
  6. Gratitude for time to reflect on what matters most in life and work.
  7. Gratitude for early morning walks & weekend hikes
  8. Gratitude for our a.team of amazing co-workers
  9. Gratitude for 11 years of being a remote company
  10. Gratitude for working
  11. Gratitude for good food
  12. Gratitude for our pets who keep us company all-day
  13. Gratitude for the beauty of nature and America’s great outdoors
  14. Gratitude for the love and support of family and friends
  15. Grateful for new hobbies
  16. Grateful for my donkeys
  17. Grateful for staying connected with friends globally
  18. Grateful for personal growth
  19. Grateful for my vibrant health
  20. Grateful for watching the Santa Monica beach sunset (almost) every evening

This would not be possible without the courage and selflessness of frontline workers and those who support our communities from behind the scenes. We share our deepest gratitude to those who work hard, so we can be safe.

We enter this season in optimistic spirits, and we could never thank you all enough!

We wish you and yours a happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday.

5 Steps to Building Resilience in Your Job Search

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2020|

If you’ve recently lost a job or are getting frustrated with the long application or interview cycles, a key attribute that will help you stay in the game is resilience. Studies have shown, that with the right habits and mindset, you can develop a more resilient approach to your job search. Here’s how to do it:

1. Reflect, Then Keep Moving

In the aftermath of a job loss or during a difficult job search, it is normal to experience sadness, anger, and loss. Acknowledging these feelings is the best way to move through and continue on. Avoid getting stuck in the past, learn from your previous experience, develop a positive mindset, and become more conscious of new opportunities and things to be grateful for.

2. Take Stock of Yourself

Now is the time to be a good friend to yourself and emphasize your strongest qualities. Gather evidence of your past achievements, think about the things you love to do and are best at, and do some research to discover what new avenues may be open to you in a changing marketplace. If you haven’t updated your online portfolio or your LinkedIn profile in a while, make sure they showcase your best work in a way that’s exciting and relevant. (This may make you feel more optimistic and become more resilient, too.)

3. Try New Things

A sudden job loss or a long job search can give you the needed time to build new skills or to experiment with new hobbies and interests. If you read books and articles about subjects you want to learn about, attend virtual events that look interesting to you, and get out of your comfort zone, you may find yourself drawn to fresh subjects and opportunities you didn’t notice before. Be yourself, make connections, and grow your grit. New experiences can help you put things in perspective and develop a more broad-minded outlook, which is powerful for building resilience.

Masterclass, Udemy, Creative Live, or General Assembly are great places to brush up on your skills or develop new ones.

4. Express Gratitude

Our inherent negativity bias makes it easier to dwell on the negative and ignore the positive. To become more resilient, refocus your mindset and go overboard with positivity for a while. When you make a daily gratitude list, or simply remind yourself to look for the silver lining in situations, you train your brain to notice the good things around you, which will make it easier to spot your next big opportunities.

5. Reach Out

Being independent doesn’t mean being alone. Your peers, mentors, and friends will understand what you’re going through, and many will be eager to help if you give them a chance to do so. Join online platforms, browse groups on Linkedin, Groupspace, or Creative Mornings can connect with your other likeminded individuals for collaboration, connection, and communication.

You can start by contacting Artisan Creative. We have experience helping creative professionals connect with amazing companies and tune into new opportunities in a changing world of work. Let’s keep the conversation going!

We hope you’ve enjoyed the 563rd issue of the a.blog.

The Power of Gratitude

Tuesday, May 26th, 2020|

“Today I choose to live with gratitude for the love that fills my heart, the peace that rests within my spirit, and the voice of hope that says all things are possible.” –  Anonymous

It’s easy to be grateful when things are going well. We count our blessings, and express gratitude for all the good we have. It takes effort when things are not.

In those moments when life challenges us, it becomes even more important to count the good that is still around us, even though we may not be fully aware of it.

Martin Seligman, an American psychologist, and the founder of positive psychology says “When we take time to notice the things that go right – it means we’re getting a lot of little rewards throughout the day”.

It’s a choice to take time every day to notice the beauty around us, things that are right with the world, even in the midst of a pandemic, even in the midst of one of the highest unemployment rates in our history.

What if amongst these hardships we could seek the good and express our gratitude for it, and shift our mindset towards happiness?

Warren Rustand, the Dean of Leadership at the Entrepreneur’ Organization (EO), a long time friend and mentor shared his 10-10-10 morning routine with me a few years back. He starts each day with 10 minutes of reading positive writings from a selection of well-known books, followed by 10 minutes of thinking positive thoughts and ending with10 minutes of journaling about gratitude.

Based on this learning, I personally have been using the Day One app to write down my own daily gratitudes. When personal tragedy struck a few years ago and I lost several family members over a short time due to illness, it was the gratitude journal that helped me heal. Even in the darkest of times, I could be grateful for the time we had together, grateful for the memories I was left with, grateful for the lessons they had taught me. Although I could not change the outcome of their illness, I could change my mindset.

David Steindl-Rast in his widely viewed Tedtalk talks about the connection between being grateful and being happy.   He says we can be grateful in every given moment.

I’ve chosen to embrace the power of gratitude and have shared these learnings with my team here at Artisan Creative. We’ve started a gratitude Slack channel and each day share them with each other.

So today, at the start of our 10th week of Safer at Home I’m hoping you’ll also join me in expressing gratitude for all that you have.

This week my ten are:

  • Grateful for health
  • Grateful for weekly family zoom calls with family across the world
  • Grateful for my pets and spending so much time with them at home
  • Grateful for expanding my culinary skills
  • Grateful for the jacarandas that paint LA a beautiful purple this time of the year
  • Grateful for early morning walks in our neighborhood
  • Grateful for the Artisan Creative team helping candidates who are looking for work
  • Grateful for Yoga with Adriene!
  • Grateful Southern California beaches are open again
  • Grateful to you for reading this.

Will you please share yours?

with gratitude,
Katty

We hope you’ve enjoyed our 561st issue of our a.blog.

Giving Thanks 2019

Wednesday, November 27th, 2019|

We give thanks to our clients and talent, and to our a.team for 23 years of building a more creative world together.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Here at Artisan Creative, we have a #gratitude Slack channel where throughout the year our a.team shares what they are grateful for daily. Everything from bike rides and nature walks to home remodels and healthy families, we recognize every day how very fortunate we are in so many ways.

Here are some snippets of shares on Slack from the past year:

Grateful for health.
Grateful for family.
Grateful for laughter.
Grateful for loving relationships with friends and family.
Grateful for enriching experiences.
Grateful for launching our artisan podcast on creativity, inspiration, and determination.
Grateful for our virtual office and not commuting—celebrating 10 years of working remotely.
Grateful for a strong body and mind.
Grateful for learning to wake up to life at a deeper level.
Grateful for new friendships.
Grateful for old friendships.
Grateful for sunrises and sunsets.
Grateful for being able to give back and helping others.
Grateful for our 4-legged furry friends.
Grateful for air travel that makes it possible to see family and friends who are far away.
Grateful for babies sleeping through the night.
Grateful for positive attitudes.
Grateful for the bathroom remodel being done.
Grateful for “Find My Phone”!
Grateful for self-care.
Grateful for new beginnings.
Grateful for the amazing a.team!
Grateful for 23 years of Artisan Creative.
Grateful for our clients and talents.
Grateful for new additions to our team this year.
Grateful for our focus on life-work integration.
Grateful for living and being true to our core values.
Grateful for continual learning and growth.
Grateful for knowing and understanding our strengths.
Grateful for mindfulness.
Grateful for the entrepreneurial journey.
Grateful for a happy life!

Wishing you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving.
The artisan a.team

Morning Rituals For Success

Wednesday, March 27th, 2019|

If you’re a “morning person,” you know that the early hours of the day, between when you wake up and when you begin work, can be some of the most valuable, productive, and fun. And, even if you don’t identify that way, you may be surprised how a few slight changes in your behavior can have a tremendous effect on your attitude.

When you establish the right morning routine, you can greet the day with fresh vigor, get more accomplished in work and life, and go to sleep looking forward to the next day. Want to stop hitting “snooze” and learn to love your mornings? Here are some ideas for morning rituals that will spread some sunshine on your days.

Get Plenty of Sleep

Sometimes more pleasant mornings are simply a matter of getting adequate rest at night. Before making any changes to your morning routine, make sure you’re in good physical health, not abusing drugs or alcohol, and getting the best sleep you can.

Rise Early

When you’re not in a hurry, everything seems less daunting. Give yourself more than enough time to transition from sleep to preparation for the day ahead.

Make Time for Yourself

To put yourself in a pleasant and productive mood, start your day with activities you will look forward to and enjoy, with an eye toward building routines that help you cultivate a positive mindset. These could include mindfulness meditation, a solo creative project you’re passionate about and want to make time for, or maybe just a bracing cup of coffee.

Get Moving

“Running and walking are both great because they’re accessible to most everyone, they can be your gateway remedy to a healthier lifestyle, and they can even give you the momentum to design a whole new morning routine,” writes Benjamin Spall, author ofMy Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired. If a pre-dawn run sounds overwhelming, you can try yoga, stretching, swimming, or any other physical activity that wakes you up, circulates your blood and oxygen, and helps you get into the rhythm and flow of life.

Write

“Something I do every morning is stretch, listen to NPR, and then shower,” says Tina Roth Eisenberg, designer and founder of the popular lecture and networking event series Creative Mornings. “Then I sit down and either write whatever my soul needs to regurgitate or post to my blog.” Whether or not you consider yourself a writer, an early-morning writing practice is one of the most trusted ways to kickstart your brain, prime your creative pump, and connect to your deeper emotions. You can try Julia Cameron’s “Morning Pages,” record the previous night’s dreams while they’re fresh, or keep a decision journal. Or, like humorist David Sedaris, jot down a few notes, lists, or ideas at dawn and return to them later to flesh them out.

Prepare

“Each morning you should prepare, plan and meditate on how you aim to act that day,” writes author Ryan Holiday. “Don’t wing it. Don’t be reactionary. Have a plan. Marcus Aurelius rose in the morning and did his journaling – preparing himself for what he was likely to face in the hours ahead. He thought about the people he was likely to face, difficulties he might encounter (premeditatio malorum), and what he knew about how to respond.” Developing an early-morning journaling habit can help you build personal confidence and see connections and patterns you might otherwise miss.

Skip Email and Social Media

Most mornings, your notifications can wait. If the first thing you do every day is reach for your phone, try postponing that for an hour, or however long it takes to do something more peaceful and reclaim some of your private psychological space. “This can be hard for many of us, especially if you run an online business or keep up profiles that feel like they require your full attention at all times,” writes Spall. What you’ll quickly find, however, is that avoiding social media in the morning will allow the calm of the night to carry on a little bit longer.”

The best way to stop a bad habit is to, instead of going cold turkey, replace it with something you’d rather do instead. “If you’re going to do something like intentionally ignore your email for a few hours, you need to be just as intentional about planning how you’re going to spend that time,” writes Kelsey Manning, who struggled to implement email-free mornings and gained some insight in the process.

Change One Habit at a Time

Take inspiration from Niklas Göke, who wrote an excellent piece about how he built an enviable morning routine by optimizing one new habit at a time. “I never made a list when I began,” Göke writes. “Because it wouldn’t have lasted a day. The moment you make a list, you start trying to check off the items on it. You’ll dream up a big set of habits, try to adopt them all in a day and fail. Instead, see this idea as a process of optimization. Don’t pressure yourself to get it right the first time. Think of yourself as putting one foot in front of the other and improving along the way. This way, you’ll focus on learning and getting better, rather than comparing and getting frustrated.”

Take advantage of our decades of experience. We’ll help you build the lifestyle and career you’ve always wanted. Contact Artisan Creative today to get started.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our 514th a.blog.

 

Why We Love What We Do

Wednesday, February 13th, 2019|

This February we celebrate 23 years of being Artisan Creative. Twenty-three fabulous years of creating relationships based on trust and teamwork, collaboration, and support.

Thank you for being on this journey with us. We couldn’t have done it without you.

To celebrate and in recognition of Valentine’s day, we asked our Artisan Creative a.team to share 23 things they love about what they do every day and why they love working at Artisan Creative.

  1. The Artisan a.team
  2. The impact we create every day in people’s lives
  3. Our core values
  4. Our life/work integration mindset
  5. Flexibility – working to live and not living to work
  6. Seeing life-changing opportunities through the work we do
  7. The amazing people we work with
  8. Ability to work from anywhere. Remote/Virtual office
  9. Building impactful relationships
  10. Connecting people to opportunities
  11. Supportive team
  12. Working for a company that finds jobs for artists
  13. Use of relevant and current technologies
  14. Being organized and efficient
  15. Interesting team-building exercises
  16. Employee ideas are heard, considered, and acted upon
  17. Learning from a dynamic and supportive team
  18. Connecting with great people and changing lives
  19. Building long-lasting client & talent relationships
  20. Integrity, respect, and honesty of the team
  21. Making a difference
  22. Focus on personal and professional development
  23. Being a woman-owned business

Our core values were created by the a.team. To learn more about how we create impact, please connect.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our 509th a.blog. Happy Valentine’s Day.

 

With Gratitude

Wednesday, November 21st, 2018|

“Start with gratitude. Then get to work.”

Beth Lapides

During this Thanksgiving holiday season, we at Artisan Creative celebrate our clients and talent whom we work with all year. By working with the finest people and organizations, we always find ourselves amazed by the skills of our talent and the openness of our clients that facilitate the making of great matches. This gives us pride in the part we play in impacting careers.

This would not be possible without the courage and selflessness of those who hold up our communities from behind the scenes. We share our immense gratitude for the people who do so much to keep our society functioning at the hardest of times.

In the last few weeks, the Camp Fire and Woolsey Fire have posed unprecedented challenges for our home state of California. In response, Californians have come together to rally behind deeply affected families and businesses, and to support charities and emergency workers who are saving lives and helping communities prepare for rebuilding and recovery. We encourage joining these efforts and giving in the ways that are most effective, using wise-giving guidelines to make sure our dollars do the greatest possible good. Volunteering at your local shelter, donating clothes and essentials, supporting our firefighters are all ways we can help.

The people we work with have taught us much about strengthening our networks, bringing out the best in each other, and banding together to accomplish seemingly impossible breakthroughs. We enter this season in optimistic spirits, and we could never thank you all enough!

Our Artisan a.team is grateful for so much this year, our collective thanks are outlined below:

We are thankful for our health, loving spouse/partners, our children, our fur babies, our families, our A.team co-workers, our home, our company, our personal freedom, our friends and support system, our breath, our opportunity to travel, our ability to have life/work integration, the opportunity to work remotely, and our California.

We wish you and yours a happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday.

4 Tips for Being a Better Co-Worker

Wednesday, February 21st, 2018|

Whether you’re working on-site or remotely, as part of an agency or in-house team, it is increasingly important to work more respectfully and effectively with others. Good team players are in demand because they get results, are collaborative, and easy to work with. Moreover, maintaining a positive attitude toward those around you especially through challenging times will ripple out into all areas of your life.

Here are four easy to be a better coworker in 2018 and beyond.

1. Communication

As interdependent creatures, our lives require a collaborative effort. In order to contribute and do work they can take pride in, your coworkers must be heard, and know that they are heard.

Practice active listening techniques and asking questions to make sure everyone on your team has ample opportunity to shine and to add their secret sauce to the recipe. This will allow you to work more efficiently, more effectively, and will give you a chance to see what the team can accomplish when everyone has a chance to offer their best.

2. Appreciation

Everyone deserves equal respect, and we all bring different skills, talents, and passions to a team. When you praise and encourage coworkers where they excel, as well as share constructive feedback where appropriate, you have the potential to help and discover the unique greatness of each individual you work with.

When you offer appreciation, be specific. It’s nice to be told, “you’re awesome.” It’s more useful and meaningful to know what particular things that have done well. For example, you could say, ” I really appreciate the way you communicate your ideas, as it opens a new perspective on how to approach this particular challenge. What other thoughts do you have on this?”

3. Credit

None of us live in a vacuum. We are each the products of our environments and of the relationships we foster with those around us. Everything we create in life is the result of an endless series of interactions and collaborations.

Therefore, when you achieve a goal or accomplish something remarkable, always share the credit with those who helped you along the way. This will show others that you think in terms of the group, which will inspire them to contribute to more success in the future.

Share your credit, and others will share your responsibility.

4. Support

Many of us spend as much time with our coworkers as we do with our friends and families. Therefore, even if you’re not at the center of a colleague’s life, it is important to pay attention to what’s going on with them and to offer emotional support as much as you can.

If a coworker needs to step back or take time off for their physical and emotional health, let them know you respect their decision to care for themselves, and offer to pick up the slack in whatever ways are needed.

Be mindful of the humanity of everyone you work with, whether colleagues, clients, customers, or the people who serve you in any capacity – especially when it’s difficult! By sowing goodwill, and having empathy you’ll accomplish more, get more of what you really want, and experience greater peace of mind.

At Artisan Creative, we strive to help professionals make the most of their careers and lives and help teams thrive. Contact us today to find your dream team.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the 462nd issue of our a.blog.