10 Top Tips to Make Connections and Build Your Network with Blick Academy
Published:April 26, 2018
On Tuesday night, Blick Academy hosted the event ‘How to Make Connections and Build Your Network’, with speakers Peter Edgar, Mark O’Donnell and Orla McGreevy. We wanted to take the opportunity to share with you the wonderful advice that they offered to our audience.
Ask personal questions.
For example, ask someone about their hobbies instead of what they do for a living, you’ll stand out from everyone else asking the same questions and it helps you to build meaningful relationships.
Say yes to everything, within reason. Join in on events and meeting people for coffee because you never know when or where you’re going to meet someone who is going to be a valuable connection.
What can I give? vs. What can I get? Following on from the last point, you need to assess how valuable your time is and whether there will be something that you and you connection can offer to each other.
Try to intentionally fall in love with everyone. This continues the point of making a meaningful connection. If you’re trying to find mutual interests or enjoyable qualities about someone, the likelihood is you’re going to be a much better conversationalist.
Holidays are your friend. Throughout the holidays you’re going to receive a lot of ‘Out of Office’ replies, which will normally include more accessible contact information such as a mobile phone number.
Do a pro bono (favour!). Statistically, someone cannot (or will find it a lot harder to!) dislike you if you do them a favour. Build more bridges.
Find people who inspire you. Having connections or a network of people who inspire you will constantly motivate you and help you strive for higher goals.
Realise you don’t have limits. You’re always growing and improving, something that you may not be able to do now may come completely naturally to you in six months time. Don’t be afraid to apply yourself for something that you can learn along the way.
Build your own narrative. While everyone else is talking about their history, goals and acheivements, talk about the future and what you hope to acheive. Someone out there might be able to help you with that!
Build a network with people you can trust. Find people that want to help you and your connections, and will do as much for as you would for them.
Here are some of the benefits you could experience from taking part in our Nurture Creative Incubation Program, which will provide free workspace and support for 4 creatives over an 8 month period:
- Support, community & motivation - from working alongside like-minded creatives in the free workspace and program activities
- Space to focus and work productively - as well as share ideas and inspiration in the free workspace and different program activities
- Support & accountability from monthly one-on-one mentoring to keep you motivated & on track with your creative idea
- Improved finance confidence & knowledge from quarterly finance mentoring
- Improved practical skills & knowledge from skillshare workshops with creative professionals and the different business resources and exercises provided
- Inspiration & motivation from hearing local creatives’ stories at the creative talks and workshops
- Marketing & promotional opportunities through sharing your creative idea through the Blick social media and website and at a showcase event at the end of the program
- Confidence & presentation skills from regularly talking about your work to the group and the public at the showcase event at the end of the program
For more information on the program visit our website link below or in profile or email christine@blickstudios.org
Our Hill St studios set up for a candle making workshop with @lecontourcandles earlier this month! The ideal space for small-scale creative workshops right in the heart of the Cathedral Quarter!
2 weeks left to apply for our new incubation program!
An 8-month program to help 4 emerging creatives in Belfast establish their creative practice. Providing bespoke business support and free shared creative workspace in our new South Belfast studios. Each program participant will have 24/7 access to their own dedicated deskspace as well as use of shared communal facilities throughout the program. In addition they will benefit from the following support:
Monthly one-on-one mentoring sessions – for accountability with Blick founder Christine James
Monthly peer-mentoring group sessions with the other program participants – for peer support, learning, inspiration, community and accountability.
Quarterly finance mentoring sessions – to help with financial planning and advice with Blick and freelance finance manager Rosy James
Monthly industry specific skillshare training workshops for program participants – with current and past Blick residents and team members, sharing their skills and experiences with the program participants
Monthly online business resources, worksheets and exercises – to help you refine your idea, improve your skills and knowledge and for accountability and to establish your creative practice
Quarterly creative talks – by local creatives sharing their creative journey for inspiration and peer learning
Quarterly industry specific skillshare workshops – by local creatives sharing their expertise to improve skills and knowledge
Showcasing and promotional opportunities – on our website and social media and through presenting your work at a showcase event at the end of the project
Program dates:
1st October 2024 – 31st May 2025
Application criteria:
This program is aimed at emerging creatives who aren’t yet generating a full-time income from their creative practice. To be eligible to apply for the program you must have an idea for a creative business or be a self-employed creative, or creative freelancer generating your full income from your creative idea or practice for less than 6 months.
Find more information on our website link below and in profile
As part of our new international collaborative project Design Your Life we are hosting a series of online design-led workshops to imagine, explore and create new habits and beliefs.
- - DESIGN YOUR LIFE THROUGH DOODLES & DRAWINGS - -
About the workshops
Design your life to improve your health and wellbeing through doodling, drawing and collaging in this interactive visual journaling workshop.
Use the power of doodling, drawing, cutting and sticking to help you look inward, reflect on your life and lifestyle and use the principles of design to help you redesign a healthier, happier life.
Workshop agendas
The Past. We will begin the fieldtrip by exploring our past. Examining past choices, habits and any regrets, or unprocessed thoughts or feelings we may be holding on to that are impacting our health and wellbeing.
The Present. In the second part of the fieldtrip, we will reflect on our current lives and lifestyles exploring the many different individual daily decisions and choices we all make which impact how we feel, our health and wellbeing, how we live our lives and almost everything that happens in our lives.
The Future. We will use design thinking principles in the final part of the fieldtrip to help us to imagine small, sustainable changes we can each make to design our future lives and lifestyles to improve our health and well-being.
What to know or bring to the workshops
Pen or pencil, crayons or colouring pencils A minimum of 2 sheets of A4 paper Optional: masking tape or washi tape, scissors, glue and magazine images
On our new 8-month incubation program starting this October 4 emerging creatives will each get bespoke business support and free shared creative workspace in our new South Belfast studios. Each program participant will have 24/7 access to their own dedicated deskspace as well as use of shared communal facilities throughout the program. For more info on the program and support available visit our website (link in profile)
Applications are now open for our new creative incubation program offering 4 emerging creatives workspace and support to develop their creative idea over an 8-month period! for more info visit our website (link in profile)
We are very excited to announce a brand new project we have been working on called “Design Your Life”
An international collaboration between The Design Salon which we are a partner of alongside Karishma Kusurkar and Kylie Chan Illustration Design Your Life will feature an interactive installation at AIRSIDE Hong Kong and a series of design-led workshops to imagine, explore and create new habits and beliefs.
Design Your Life has been selected to be a part of the British Council’s SPARK 2024 Festival in Hong Kong which will take place this October.
An 8-month program to help 4 emerging creatives in Belfast establish their creative practice. Providing bespoke business support and free shared creative workspace in our new South Belfast studios. Each program participant will have 24/7 access to their own dedicated deskspace as well as use of shared communal facilities throughout the program. In addition they will benefit from the following support:
Monthly one-on-one mentoring sessions – for accountability with Blick founder Christine James
Monthly peer-mentoring group sessions with the other program participants – for peer support, learning, inspiration, community and accountability.
Quarterly finance mentoring sessions – to help with financial planning and advice with Blick and freelance finance manager Rosy James
Monthly industry specific skillshare training workshops for program participants – with current and past Blick residents and team members, sharing their skills and experiences with the program participants
Monthly online business resources, worksheets and exercises – to help you refine your idea, improve your skills and knowledge and for accountability and to establish your creative practice
Quarterly creative talks – by local creatives sharing their creative journey for inspiration and peer learning
Quarterly industry specific skillshare workshops – by local creatives sharing their expertise to improve skills and knowledge
Showcasing and promotional opportunities – on our website and social media and through presenting your work at a showcase event at the end of the project
Program dates:
1st October 2024 – 31st May 2025
For more info visit our website (link in profile) or get in touch!
An 8-month program starting this October providing bespoke meaningful business support within a nurturing creative environment to help 4 emerging freelance or self-employed creatives to successfully establish their creative practice.
Participants on the program with benefit from
- Free shared creative workspace in our new South Belfast studios. Each program participant will have 24/7 access to their own dedicated deskspace as well as use of shared communal facilities throughout the program.
- Monthly one-on-one mentoring sessions – for accountability with Blick founder Christine James
- Monthly peer-mentoring group sessions with the other program participants – for peer support, learning, inspiration, community and accountability.
- Quarterly finance mentoring sessions – to help with financial planning and advice with Blick and freelance finance manager Rosy James
- Monthly industry specific skillshare training workshops for program participants – with current and past Blick residents and team members, sharing their skills and experiences with the program participants
- Monthly online business resources, worksheets and exercises – to help you refine your idea, improve your skills and knowledge and for accountability and to establish your creative practice
- Quarterly creative talks – by local creatives sharing their creative journey for inspiration and peer learning
- Quarterly industry specific skillshare workshops – by local creatives sharing their expertise to improve skills and knowledge
- Showcasing and promotional opportunities – on our website and social media and through presenting your work at a showcase event at the end of the project
This program is aimed at emerging creatives who aren’t yet generating a full-time income from their creative practice. To be eligible to apply for the program you must have an idea for a creative business or be a self-employed creative, or creative freelancer established for less than 6 months.
Please note that due to the nature of the funding, screen and technology based businesses aren`t eligible to apply for more info visit our website or get in touch!
We have been a bit quiet on here for the last few weeks as we have been busy getting our new South Belfast space ready and working on a few new projects behind the scenes, one of which is a new program of support for emerging creatives in Belfast called Nurture, which is kindly part funded by Belfast City Council!
Nurture will feature an 8 month creative incubation program starting this October providing free workspace and bespoke business support including mentoring, peer mentoring, workshops, talks, training sessions and different exercises and resources to help 4 emerging creatives establish their creative practice.
There will also be an ongoing program of talks and workshops and online content to provide support and inspiration for self-employed and freelance creatives within the broader creative community in Belfast.
We will be sharing more info in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, you can find more information on our website (link in profile)
In our latest Meet the Resident we get to know self-employed digital marketer Syed M. Noman one of our newist creative residents in our Hill St studios.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your creative work?
My name is Syed M. Noman, and I am a self-employed digital marketer. I specialize in using a variety of platforms, including Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram, to effectively promote and sell my clients’ products. Through strategic and creative campaigns, I help businesses reach their target audiences, increase brand visibility, and drive sales. My expertise in digital marketing allows me to craft tailored solutions that meet the unique needs of each client, ensuring their success in the competitive online marketplace.
What was the biggest hurdle for you starting out and how did you overcome it?
The biggest hurdle for me when starting out was transitioning from being an employee at well-known companies like TRG, Axact, and IBEX Global to launching my own venture. Leaving a stable job to start my own business was daunting, but I was determined to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams. I took the risk and invested significant effort into building my business from the ground up. Through relentless hard work and dedication, I gradually overcame the initial challenges, and things became easier over time.
How do you stay inspired and motivated?
I stay inspired and motivated by my genuine passion for digital marketing. I love what I do, and this intrinsic enjoyment drives me to continuously improve and innovate in my work. This enthusiasm not only fuels my creativity but also keeps me motivated to tackle challenges and achieve my goals.
This is the third meetup for creative hubs in Northern Ireland to come together, connect, share ideas and support each other. This time in sunny Bangor where we will be visiting:
-Boom Studios @boom.studios
-Seacourt Print Workshop @seacourtprints
-The Courthouse @courthousebangor
If you are involved with running or working in a creative hub in Northern Ireland, we would love for you to join us at this our third meetup.
Meetup Details Date: August 6, 2024 Time: 2.30pm Location: Boom Studios 80 Main Street Bangor BT20 5AE
Book your ticket on our website (link in profile) ✨️
Friday was our last day in our beautiful Malone studios. We have been there since 2007 and have had over 15 amazing years in the studios, but due to our landlord selling the building, we are now relocating!
We have a new property in South Belfast lined up and will be announcing details shortly. We have loved our time in Malone and are very grateful to have had the opportunity to enjoy such a beautiful building over the years, but change is good and we are excited for the future and opening our new space and announcing some exciting new projects in coming weeks!
After a busy week of moving furniture and finishing things off, we are happy to be taking a well-deserved break for a few days before getting properly stuck in on all our exciting new projects!
Due to an insanely busy period of work and travel, this is a very belated post on some of the key lessons from our last Blick Academy Creative Talk on 5th June with Saul Duffin founder of @yeomagazine
We have a full event writeup on our blog with lots more tips and insights from Saul and lessons he has learned throughout his creative journey! (Link to blog in profile) ✨️