Tag: networking | Page 3 | Artisan Creative

Artisan Creative’s 5 Favorite Co-Working Spaces in Los Angeles

Wednesday, October 1st, 2014|

Working from home can be a luxury for many people and let’s face it; spending time at your home office instead of a traffic jam is never a bad thing. Sometimes there are those days when you just need interaction. Whether it comes in the form of friendly conversation with a guy one desk over or soaking up inspiration from beautiful architecture and surroundings, it’s good to have a change of scenery. With that in mind, we decided to share some of our favorite spots across the city to inspire your creativity and pique your mood.

The Unique Space
Arts District, Downtown
Living up to its name, The Unique Space is a beautiful historic factory turned co-working spot home to innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. We love their library filled with helpful resources and the fact that they even have bikes to borrow along with a rooftop terrace to take a break. Did we mention this spot has everything?

The Hub LA
Arts District, Downtown
The Hub is 7000 square feet of open-plan flooring and tall windows allowing plenty of light. What’s great about The Hub is that they have Media Lab which boasts post-production suites, spaces for filming and screening. You’ll also find a host of General Assembly events along with film screenings and workshops.

Kleverdog CoWorking
Chinatown
Kleverdog is an Artisan favorite and a regular place for us to hold company events and meetings. The atmosphere at Kleverdog is relaxed and as such, feels like a home away from home. With 24/7 access and a favorite with developers, designers, and writers you’re never short of finding new conversations and even a friendly office dog.

Blankspaces
Santa Monica, Downtown, Mid-Wilshire
One of the original co-working spaces opened its doors at Mid-Wilshire and most recently, Santa Monica and Downtown. The architecture of their buildings is beautiful and clearly a lot of time and effort went into the construction and layout of their spaces (owner Jerome is also an architect). We’ve used both Downtown and Mid-Wilshire locations and they’re great for meetings, co-working, and events.

Opodz
Little Tokyo
Opodz blends technology, community, and culture into one cohesive space which allows co-working, art events, and lectures. This week they’re hosting a UX Strategy lecture and they even feature their resident co-working colleagues on their website which is a thoughtful touch.

Do you have a favorite co-working space of your own that hasn’t been featured? We’re always on the lookout for new places to explore so share your recommendations in the comments.

Laura Pell | Talent Acquisition | Artisan Creative

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Having an All-Star Job Search Team

Wednesday, July 16th, 2014|

We are on teams at work, collaborating on projects, and inspiring creativity in one another. Teams are becoming more and more important, even in academic subjects, at school. We are also on teams in our personal lives, whether we practice sports or do DIY projects at home.

Have you ever been on a job search team? We all need people to help us along, especially when we are looking for that perfect new role. Who should you be scouting?

A Pitcher

A friend who is not averse to getting in there and making big moves is a great motivator. She has great ideas and unafraid of risk. Brainstorm with this team member for new strategies and energy. And let her take the lead if she has great connections.

A Catcher

Good advice is always welcome and this colleague always knows when you are in need of a little pep talk, help handing a particular situation, and a calm voice. He can also throw the ball back to you when it’s time for you to be proactive.

First Base Umpire

When you are between interviews or waiting to hear, she can keep you steady on the road to landing your new job. Someone with great focus on your goals can help you stay focused as well. Is it time to take a breath or time to head for home?

Mascot

No matter what, your mascot thinks you are the best. Staying positive is one of the hardest things about looking for a job and you definitely need someone to cheer you on.

Coach

A recruiter can help you see the big picture, improve your resume and presentation skills and get you out there interviewing for the jobs you want.

Do you have everyone you need on your team? Don’t job search alone. Pull your team together and go for the win!

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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How Does Technology Impact Your Life?

Wednesday, June 11th, 2014|

I’m currently reading and implementing some of Shawn Achor’s The Happiness Advantage Principles. One best practice is to write down your daily gratitudes.

My gratitude for today is Technology. That one thing we are all so reliant on–it does everything from opening up car doors to turning on the lights.

When Artisan started over 25 years ago, it was the world of Xacto knives, spray mount and paste-up, and the time of the Macintosh and then Powerbook. A lot has changed. We at Artisan have continued to evolve with technology and with the talent we work with and clients whose digital needs we service daily.

The technology-related gratitude I am writing about today comes from a personal experience. Last week I traveled to Greece to attend the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Global Leadership Conference. We were 1100+ strong and I was excited to reconnect with friends and business owners from across the globe. We stay in touch regularly through social media, but opportunities to meet in person are less regular. With WhatsApp, Facebook, and my laptop handy, I set off for Athens excited to make plans in between meetings and lectures.

However, the technology gods at my hotel had a different plan… Unable to connect to a very spotty wifi meant no way of easily finding the people I was looking for, so I set out in person the old fashioned way—hanging around the lobby to see who I would bump into.

How did I ever function without cell phones, IMs, and chats? Just fine actually. I just got lost a bit more often and missed a few people in the big crowds. In some ways, it was liberating not having technology to rely on—though I realized it’s not something I would like to be without too often. I like to be connected.

I like how technology enables me to Facetime with my little niece and two nephews who live in Europe. I like how technology allows me to celebrate their birthdays and be a part of their lives, and for a few moments have them transported back into my living room. I like how technology enables our virtual team at Artisan to be cohesive–and connected.

I like how technology allows me to be connected to clients and talent even when I am thousands of miles away. It gives me access to the answers to the silliest of questions. “Who created the sandwich?” was a recent question my friends had pondered… Without technology, we wouldn’t know the answer!

And for these reasons, my gratitude for today is technology.

Have you ever found yourself without the technology you take for granted?

Katty Douraghy, President, Artisan Creative

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Fun in Freelancing

Wednesday, May 7th, 2014|

There are lots of positives about being a freelance creative, but one that often gets overlooked is the fun of starting something new in a new place more often than people with permanent jobs. If you can look beyond the anxiety inherent in lots of “first days,” you can appreciate the great things about new starts:

Make connections–Like to make new friends and network? Short-term freelance jobs let you meet new people often and show them what you can do. You can never meet too many people, especially in your field.

Learn something new–Every project has unique challenges. Embrace them and you can keep learning throughout your career.

Explore neighborhoods–When you work in the same place for a long time, you can get comfortable, but you can also get bored. Ask one of your new friends to walk around with you on your lunch breaks for a few days. You never know what you might find.

Discovering a hole-in-the-wall restaurant or park isn’t the only perk to that walk. We came across a study from Stanford University this week that showed that “walking boosts creative inspiration” by as much as 60%.

So, when you start that new freelance gig, don’t be shy about walking around on breaks or at lunch. Ask your co-workers for the best places in the area to eat or read. Find outdoor spaces you’ve never seen before. You might find yourself an expert on parts of your city no one you know has ever seen, and you might also find it makes you more creative and more successful.

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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5 Job Search Tips for Graduates

Wednesday, April 30th, 2014|

Getting graduation announcements in the mail these days? All of those newly-minted diploma holders are about to enter the workforce in droves and the job search environment is still in a tenuous recovery. Here are some of our tips for landing that first job after graduation:

Think long-term: Your short-term goal is to get a job, but don’t neglect to think about where you want to be next year, five or even ten years from now. You can’t make a solid plan, but you can figure out some routes and take your first steps along one or more of them.

Get in touch: Now is when you should be connecting with friends you made in classes ahead of yours in college or graduate students who have moved out of academia and adding them to your network, not to mention letting anyone you worked with as an intern during school know that you are ready for the job market.

Set up informational interviews: Ask your parents’ friends and colleagues and anyone else you can think of. They really are a way into the hidden job market.

Keep learning: Yes, you just finished school, but your education doesn’t end there. Read the latest books in your field, take a class. Whatever you learn now will make a great interview topic.

Practice interviewing: Most likely, you’ve never taken a course called Job Interviewing 101. Get together with other recent graduate friends and do some mock interviews, critique each other’s stories and get into the zone. Here are some great questions for practice.

If your job search takes longer than you would like, you’re not alone. Find a non-profit organization you are passionate about and offer your skills as a volunteer. Volunteering keeps you busy, keeps your skills up-to-date, gives you great networking opportunities, provides you with stories to tell about your summer, and may even lead to a paying job.

Congratulations on a great achievement! Now get out there!

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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Distractions Can Be a Good Thing

Wednesday, April 16th, 2014|

Are you easily distracted? Distractions can work for us–or against us, depending on what we are trying to accomplish and what kind of distractions they are. Here are some pros and cons of distractions and some ways to use them to your advantage:

Your Smartphone:

Notifications interrupt you all day long–Facebook messages, emails from co-workers, texts from your spouse, requests from your manager.

Pros: The communications you receive during your work day from team members, colleagues and managers may be interruptions that clarify the project you are working on or improve collaboration. They could also offer valuable suggestions. These interruptions could improve productivity, rather than damage it.

Cons: Off-topic notifications can disrupt your work flow for no good reason.

Solution: Consider turning off notifications from social media during working hours and let your friends and family know that you will get back to them when you take a break (you are taking breaks, right?). Set up an emergency code with your spouse and children for things that need to be taken care of immediately and let the rest of the personal communications wait a little while.

Email:

An email might be urgent to the sender but not to you.

Pros: Email is a great timesaver–no need to walk over to your colleague’s office to chat about your project every few minutes, email also keeps a good written record for later evaluation of your process.

Cons: All of our Inboxes are filled with emails we will never read or can read after the workday is over. But if we see them, we will click on them.

Solution: Spend some serious time creating filters for your Inbox so that you will see the emails that you need to see right away, but only see the less important missives when you have time to choose.

Wandering Thoughts:

Can’t help them, but you can stop beating yourself up about them.

Pros: Letting your mind wander can lead to creative ideas that might never have occurred to you if you were plugging along, trying to stay on task.

Cons: Letting your mind wander for too long can make you miss your deadline.

Solution: Schedule break times during your workday. Read 10 pages of a novel. Think about what you want to make for dinner. Give yourself time to let your project marinate in the back of your mind instead of the front. You might come up with something truly innovative on that wandering path.

Welcoming distractions is counter-intuitive. Focus is easier to see as a positive. But if you embrace the distractions that work for you, it might improve your work product–and your productivity!

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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Coming in Second

Wednesday, April 9th, 2014|

Does coming in second feel like failure? It shouldn’t–but sometimes it does. Psychology Today recently wrote about how people react to getting a Silver Medal in the Olympics and I spent last weekend in Nashville, Tennessee with over a hundred teenage performers who ended the weekend as First Runners Up with remarkable nonchalance. There are many people, however, who torment themselves with the “what ifs” and have a hard time with just missing that brass ring.

It happens in job searches and at work, where we can be a hiring manager’s second choice or be second in line for that promotion. Coming in second can feel like failure–so close and yet so far.

What many of us do when we come close to winning is imagine what would have happened if we had done something differently. Psychology Today calls it “counterfactual thinking.” The “what if” scenarios imagined by Third Place winners are generally positive, but those of the Second Place finishers are more negative, even though they were clearly almost at the very top of their field.

Counterfactual thinking can be helpful after a near-miss since it helps us come up with alternative behaviors or better choices we might make next time out. Perhaps it was one of your interview questions or answers that made the difference, or something about your presentation which was was less than stellar.

The trick is to make sure you also think about what definitely worked in your favor. Don’t forget to praise yourself for that story you told exactly the way you wanted to, the research you did about the company that surprised the hiring manager, and the relationships you started building with the people you met. It is all too easy to focus on the mistakes you think you may have made, rather than the things you did well.

The high school students I was with last weekend know that they did as amazing a performance as they could possibly have done and their First Runner Up was not because they didn’t do their very best work, so they can be proud regardless of their placement. They have no regrets. There is no shame in coming in second. Making the choice to see it as a top-tier finish will set you up well for your next opportunity to shine.

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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Spring Cleaning Your LinkedIn Profile

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014|

Spring is here even in colder climates and it’s time to clean out your LinkedIn Profile as well as your closet. You should be revising your resume every quarter, listing new accomplishments and adding job responsibilities, volunteer experience, and of course proofreading again. Your LinkedIn Profile could probably also use a fresh eye.

Summary

Make sure your summary reflects what you are passionate about now, not what you were doing last year. If your focus has changed, it’s time to rewrite.

Files

LinkedIn lets us add files, photos and videos so if you have some more current writing samples or other work product, post it now.

Experience

Freelancers have probably worked for new clients in the last few months. Make sure you add those clients to your experience on LinkedIn and your resume.

Skills

Added anything to your skillset this winter? Add it to your list. When you add skills to your list, your connections can give you new endorsements. And if you haven’t learned anything new lately, go do that!

Connections

Take a few minutes to send invitations to the people you’ve met over the winter. They will be happy to have some fresh faces in their connections, too.

Landing a new job isn’t the only time to revise your LinkedIn Profile, and it is easy to let it get stale. Open the windows and shake out the dust!

Wendy Stackhouse for Artisan Creative

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Feeling Lucky? Pass it on!

Wednesday, March 12th, 2014|

There are probably people in your network who are on a job search and you are probably helping them. You have endorsed them on LinkedIn or even written them a recommendation, if you have worked with them in their field. You have introduced them to the people you know at their target companies. When they land, you will be part of why they were successful.

Those people are lucky to have you and they know it.

There are probably also people in your network who are in a field you have no connection with, who are friends rather than work colleagues, who are targeting companies you’ve never heard of. What can you do improve their luck, too?

Be uplifting – Your friend’s self-talk is most likely critical and second guessing. The best thing you can do is not add to it, even if you think he could do better. Find out what he feels is working and encourage more of that.

Do what you can – Even if you know nothing about and no one in your friend’s field, you can proofread her resume or cover letter, help research target companies, and brainstorm strategies for her search.

Network together – Networking events are never a waste of time and they are much more fun with a friend. If you go to his, he’ll go to yours. And follow up if you meet anyone interesting.

Raise awareness – When you hear your friend being negative, point it out. We often don’t realize that we are talking ourselves down and only remembering the bad moments.

Practice – The secret to great job interviews is good preparation and you don’t need to be in your friend’s industry to help her refine her answers to common interview questions.

Luck can play a role in landing a new job, but you have to be at the right place at the right time with the right mindset and always ready to bring your A-game. We can all help each other with that.

Wendy Stackhouse, Consultant for Artisan Creative

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Loving the Freelance Life

Wednesday, February 12th, 2014|

As it becomes more common–and easier–to choose the freelance lifestyle, more workers are finding out why their freelance colleagues love it as much as they do. They might even be getting a little jealous. Why do we love freelancing?

Entrepreneurship–Freelancing is the simplest way to run your own business. It’s just you, but you are the boss. Enjoy it.
Flexibility–To be a successful freelancer, you must be disciplined about getting everything done well and on time, but when and how you tackle your work is up to you.
Giving back–My personal favorite thing about freelancing is being able to make time to volunteer for my favorite organizations, even during typical working hours–when they need me most because so many other volunteers have to be at the office.
Control–Most jobs require you to accomplish a variety of tasks, some of which you love and some of which you most definitely do not. Ideally, freelancing allows you to choose projects you are passionate about and pass on the ones you are not.
Diversity–As a freelance writer, I get to vary the topics I am writing about from day to day and sometimes hour to hour. It’s never boring!
Building Relationships–Freelancers meet new people frequently by necessity. The perfect networking opportunity is a freelance gig at a new company. Not only can you bond with the people you work with, you can demonstrate your skills and get referrals for more freelance work in the future.

Sure, there moments when I wish I had someone just tell me what to do and let me do it, check everything off a list, shut off the lights and go home. Only moments, though. Then I look around and remember how grateful I am to have a life that works for me, my family, my soul.

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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