Monday 29 October 2012

Fake it until you make it!

Putting the sparkle back in your eyes.  

 

I'm not a fan of blagging it, or fake it until you make it.  But confidence inspires confidence, well that is what I was told after a recent interview.

Confidence that little voice, knowledge of who you are and what you can do.  That thing for some random reason some of us mums lose it- lost it- can't find it.  It's seems with  every child you pushed out, some how a piece of your confidence to be a working professional went with it.

A couple of years ago I interviewed a lady for a corporate video and she hit the nail on the head.  In her very northern accent she said. “After I had my third baby, I knew I wanted to do something but I didn’t know what, I had lost confidence in me, confidence in being a business women, I don’t know why, I just had."
Dusting off the showreel

I didn't know why, I just had. It’s a mummy thing I think, not all mums lose it but those of us that did or do, need to get it back so we can sell ourselves, be ourselves and, well, just be nicer to be around.

So how do we get this lost confidence back?  

Get out your old CVs, showreels, artwork, references, photos or whatever you did or had for work and simply remind yourself... you did that, wrote it, shot it, researched it, typed it, dreamed it and one day you will do it all again.


And if you don't have confidence, "fake it" until you do! 

Saturday 27 October 2012

Zeitgeist, dreams and hopes.

With Grant Bowler on location... yes the guy from Ugly Betty

Why did I think having children would be the end of the line for working in broadcast?

 

I can’t answer that, I just did. After 13 years of working with presenters on location, spending hours in the cutting room, hanging contestants from helicopters, placing cameras in every possible place and interviewing and meeting dozens and dozens of contributors, I shifted into corporate and charity work. 

It felt like the zeitgeist had moved on from me.

I wish there was a fitting translation for the word zeitgeist. A moment in time when everything is brilliant, the coming together of all our hopes and dreams and then amplified beyond our hopes.

With no family in the UK my husband and I decided to hire a full time live in au pair to look after the children to give me the freedom to shoot overseas for a few weeks at a time, take a last minute role or stay late to finish an edit without feeling guilty or be stressed about leaving on time.  A great plan, but I just needed a job to pay for it!


Friday 26 October 2012

Transportable skills

What do you do when you officially have not worked for a very long time?

First take a look at your skill set and apply them to being a mum.  Why?  Well they tell me skills are very transportable and it's more fun than looking for a real job!

1. Excellent time management. 
Kiddy dinner
Only a mum knows how 1 minute late for dinner can turn into a Dr Suess story gone wrong.

2. Working with on air talent, contributors and creatives.
Amazing training for a mum with toddlers and a five year old going on teenager.
 
3. Budgeting.
Easy when the wallet says "NO more" it means it's gone and it's baked beans for dinner.

4. Manage small and large teams.
Essential skill for anyone going to a playgroup.
 
What you find in my handbag
5. Experience with single camera crews and multi camera shoots, underwater filming, mounted cameras, working with stunt coordinators, government bodies, tourism offices. 
In reality it means I'm the mum who takes all the photos and videos at everyone's parties, books and finds party venues and arranges the girls' night out.

 6. Familiar with all production paper work, movement orders, call sheets extra.
 Training for the never ending piles of paper found in your kids nursery and school book bags.

7. Scripting half and full hour factual programmes and entertainment news.
Very important to be able to tell a story and feed the mummy grapevine that would put any tabloid to shame!

Thursday 25 October 2012

Turn back the calandar

I say I'm a stay at home mum, well kind of, it's not like I haven't worked in five years.

Over the past 5 years I have produced, directed and edited a number of corporate videos, retrained as a skincare consultant, tried my hand at fundraising and I now run a successful gift and craft market in Godalming.

With two children under 6 you might think I have my hands full.  Well "yes" is the answer but none of these other things have lit a spark when it comes to working.  Like most mums who want it all, we want to be there for our kids, work for ourselves and keep up to date with what is going on in the world.  SO we look for anything that may fill this void.

Here are my void fillers.

Temple Spa rewards for sales
1. My corporate video productions. They are great fun and I loved using all my skills, however I'm not a gun and business and hunting down new clients, I just want to be creative, write and edit nice stories and come up with killer ideas for new shows. And for me it's not the same as working in TV.

2. Temple Spa is a luxury skincare company and I fell into the role of consultant after producing a corporate video for them. I even tried my hand at managing a sales team.  It helped that I used the products for years and years and truly love them.  I was very good at it and made some great pocket money, working nights and around the kids. But again I'm no sales person and while its fun it's just, not me.
Godalming Independent Market

4. Godalming Independent Market
Long story short after a few local mums selling their works got together we decided to put on our own Christmas Market.  I put the payment on the hall and next thing you are all too busy to help, but would love a table at the market.

Borough Hall Godalming- Come inside
As a TV Producer I am skilled at 'Making it happen' so I did. But not just another market selling tat, a market I would want to shop at and one that did not charge me to get in.  I wanted all the stalls to make and sell lovely items not found on the High Street and a real discovery.

The next market will be on November 3rd.  You can see for yourself the stalls going to be there on facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Godalming-Independent-Market/212940642098051?ref=hl


One of the free adds for the Fundraiser
4. Fundraising.  I must say The Team Hannah Health, Beauty and Fitness Fair was the biggest event I have put together on my own. It was fun, stressful and took a lot of time.  I met some lovely people, I worked my butt off and in the end it was a great experience.

A simple comment from the hubby has changed everything it was: "if you're going to work that hard you need to be paid for it". 

And so I started the journey.
Reality Bites



What happened to the blog

Well like all mums life just happen.
40 was a non event apart from a the most amazing night out with my hubby in Soho London.

Lots happened after that and it has sucked up all my time, so over the next few days I'll try to update you in how I went from stay at home mum to a woman with a mission to return to work. But for now here is that great 40th birthday gift from my Hubby the Marc Jacobs bag and a few other special gifts. As they say a picture ...