Here at awalkinmyshoes.com I like to base a lot of marketing tips on personal experiences and opinions. I was so excited a couple of weeks ago when I made my Pirate Treasure Map Business cards for my AzoogleAds event, that I hadn’t shopped around too long for a printing service that would satisfy my needs sans any errors.

“Damn…”

…Is the word that came from my lips after opening my Vistaprint package with my little business card darlings waiting inside. Holding one out in front of me it is only natural for my eyes to pick out the errors first, a blue margin line stretching across the top of the back of the card. Further analysis later would also show that a part of my graphic was cut off at the bottom, emphasized by the break in the red slashed trail to the treasure “X” marked spot.

For almost 50 bucks Vistaprint had royally screwed up all 250 business cards I had rush delivered for my event. So what better thing to do, after of course e-mailing a complaint to them, then to Tweet about it!

Twitter Suck Up

Surprisingly after my lil mini “tw-rant” (I couldn’t say it either haha) I got a tweet from the printing company that I originally meant to go with.

@UPrinting would’ve been of course more than happy for me to be dissatisfied with their competitor, hoping to reel in a new customer for their services.

However…

Even more to my surprise did I receive a tweet from @Vistaprint looking to help me satisfy my printing problems. Funny they did this before I made a blog post ranting about not wanting to use Vistaprint again…

Twitter: An Effective Customer Service Tool

The lovely person @Vistaprint not only handled my printing problem, but ordered and sent me another batch for free. Though I received the cards after my event (which was my major concern), the second batch came out perfect

I never even received an email back from the customer service people at Vistaprint.com but luckily for me there was one person paying attention all thanks to Twitter.

For awhile now I had been getting tired of twitter, ya know with the spamming and redundant online marketing/social media tweets, but now I have realized the significance of using Twitter for your business. It’s just another tool that helps you optimize your business to bring satisfaction to your customers.

Will I ever use Vistaprint again?

No..haha. The prices are ridiculous, the cards are smaller than standard, and apparently there is a scam attached to the site. Not only that, but vistaprint managed to mess up my order as a first time customer. Though the issue “was resolved,” I expected to have my cards ordered the way I wanted prior to my event, and that didn’t happen. Now, had I been a frequent customer of Vistaprint prior to this ordeal, I may have given them another chance, but now I think it’s just in my best interests to shop around for the better deal next time.

So vistaprint wasn’t able to entirely save itself from a customer going to competitors, due to its own….sloppiness, however I do give kudos to the person who correctly handled a customer service situation..

By the way…Thanks!

To everyone who sent me (@melodynieves) birthday wishes on Sept. 11th! I’m finally 21! And Thanks to all!

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<3 Love Ya!
-Mel

Over the last couple of years I have probably changed career goals as much as I have changed addresses (which is about 3 times lol). And with each change I’ve had to understand and explore the different marketing opportunities for that particular industry.

As a digital artist, marketing yourself is so much more different than as a financial therapist, however I think the opportunities for artists are more limitless during these technologically advancing times. For instance, anyone in the financial industry really needs a proven track record of good performance as well as trust and dependability. However artists can be discovered at different ages, catapulting their careers to heights seemingly unachievable in other industries.

So I’ve gathered a list of ways digital artists, and even artists in general who can market themselves during these times to further grow their careers.

6 Ways to Market Yourself as a Digital Artist

6. Join Online Communities- Sites such as deviantart.com have given genious artists international recognition in the art and design fields.

5. Get Published in Art & Design Magazines- With thousands of artists changing the design industry every day, the art and design magazines have certainly taken notice. From feature articles to Photoshop and design tutorials, artists have been given an opportunity to not only show their work but learn from others techniques.

4. Cater to Celebrities- The trends of celebrities are followed by millions of adoring fans, giving artists the chance to become the next trendiest thing in t-shirt designs, fashion designs, or general artwork. Catering to celebrities allows you to place optimal worth on your pieces by charging them at expensive prices, prices that are worth some people’s entire yearly income.

3. Have An Art Show- One of the best ways to market yourself in any industry is to just get out there and physically promote yourself. Art shows allow you to interact with your potential customers while sharing the story behind your work. Sometimes this physical interaction is what can make the difference for increasing sales.

2. Join Reality Shows- I kind of find it funny that I’m adding this to the list but in all honesty, reality shows are becoming the next best thing for catapulting your career as an artist. I hope that they make a digital art reality tv show soon lol, because I’ll sign up for that one . Reality shows not only give an insight to your distinctive design process and style, but also helps to establish a significant fan base.

1. Become the Expert- Ultimately you must broadcast yourself as an expert in your related field or industry, even if it’s only in your own style of art and design. Networking is usually the key to attain this because all you need is that one high end client who will then (depending on the experience) refer you to all their affiliates for future work.

Get Started Already!

Now of course the one major way to make all of this happen is to just get started on your work or your portfolio. I’m currently rebuilding mine and hope to work towards an art show soon! Whether it’s a small or big project, start it now because one of the things I most regret is procrastinating with my work, and later wondering where I would be had I started sooner. Besides, any work allows you to use each new project as an experience to further your growth as an artist!

So Good Luck!

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<3 Love Ya!
-Mel

Click for a larger view

This week I mentioned that I just came back from my trip to Long Island, Ny. I visited my hometown of Greenport to spend the week with my family for my father’s birthday.

Now I find looking for presents for men extremely frustrating, and although a friend suggested giving him tools or something that applied to his work as a handyman, I wanted something with a little more meaning. This particular visit was the first visit I’ve had back to my hometown in 3 years, so I wanted do so something a little more personalized or special for my father’s birthday.

Originally I was going to paint an old picture of my father and I, with him holding me on his lap as a baby, but I couldn’t get the original source picture soon enough before the trip, so while I was in Long Island, I took pictures of some local beaches to paint from as a present for him the next day.

The painting above was done very quickly, taking about 3.5 hours to paint in Photoshop CS3. I didn’t use any particular kind of technique, I knew I wanted it to be slightly abstract, and not too realistic so I kept the “brush strokes” pretty light with only enough detail to understand what the image was.

Quick Tip

One of the things I did for this painting was that I first did a photomanipulation of the picture. I took the sunset sky from one picture, and used this beach as the main image. I always manipulate photos together first for my digital paintings, using them as a photo reference for the painting, while ultimately removing the initial source image from the result to get that full painting effect–I don’t know if any of that made sense lol..but I’ve decided to include a gif animation of the steps below.

Utilize your artistic talent for gifts

This certainly isn’t the first time I’ve made a painting as a gift for someone. I think it’s that much more meaningful to take time out of your day to compose something that will have a special meaning for the relationship between you and the receiver. So be sure to utilize your talents as an artist, and you never know, that gift may be the one that was better than any gift that person ever received .

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<3 Love Ya!
-Mel

One of my biggest concerns in any work environment is how my environment is affecting my quality of work and whether it’s having a positive or negative affect on me.

At home, your environment is a direct reflection of your different qualities as a person, but when you’re at work you can’t always have a say in the physical structure and outline of your environment. However, understanding how your environment affects you will allow you to be more aware of how to counteract negative affects to productivity as a result of your work environment.

Characteristics of Poor Work Environments

Poor Lighting-One of my major dislikes, poor lighting is commonly found in many office buildings or small businesses. An absence of light is either due to little natural light coming in due to having few windows, faulty ceilings lights, or is just a general preference amongst management.
Causes:Poor lighting first and foremost causes eye strain, which may then lead to small headaches. It also brings down the general mood and can make people feel more tired because it’s either reminiscent of the early morning when you’re first waking up or the evening time when you’re getting ready for bed. I have been in offices that are so darkly lit that you can’t even tell it’s a beautiful sunny day outside.



Dark Wall Colors-Generally speaking offices have white or off-white walls so this doesn’t always become a problem, though the issue may arise if you work at home. Walls that are painted with dark colors will more than likely set the mood for how your general attitude is when working.
Causes:As cliche as it may sound dark blues may bring you down. While although reds are known for passion, they can also ignite anger amongst individuals. And though it’s probably rare, black is never a color you want to use in excessive amounts for your office design.

Clutter-Clutter is usually something that should be managed well by the employees, but certain professions and industries are more prone to clutter than others.
Causes:Clutter causes confusion because items aren’t readily available to you since they’re under mounds of other crap. As a result, anxiety arises if you’re unable to find what you need, making you very tense and anxious. Ultimately, this anxiety will lower productivity and may even promote arguments amongst workers.

Poor arrangement of furniture-Feng shui material will commonly note poor furniture placement as causing an interruption in the flow of positive chi or energy.
Causes:Poorly arranged furniture is typically a minor physical nuisance to your work day. However cords or other small things laying around can be problematic for employees to trip or stumble, creating liability issues for the company.

Counteract Negative Work Environment Characteristics

More Light!-

(Former Incentivest, Inc. Office)

-First and foremost, report any faulting lighting to management so that the issue is resolved immediately.
-One of the great benefits of my old office was that there was so much natural lighting from having windows several feet tall that there was no need to even put on the lights unless I was there in the evenings. So take advantage of natural lighting by uncovering windows with objects.
-Mirrors also add to bringing in light because of their reflective surface and can make a room appear larger.
-Apply incandescent or full spectrum lighting for your office as opposed to fluorescent lighting. Fluorescent lighting may cause eye strain, migraines, and headaches over long exposures to the lighting.

Light/Bright Wall Colors
-Repaint dark walls with white or off white to maintain a clean and bright environment in your office.
-You can add other bright colors as long as the color intensity isn’t too extreme. For instance, bright yellow can cause agitation over a long exposure to an intense color value.
-Use colors that are slightly washed out with white to create a more pastel color in order to have the bright color without the future strain.

Clutter
-Optimize on organization by seeking out storage compartments and organization racks available at office stores.
-Even if you work on the computer you can organize your files better by organizing them into separate folders. Which can be another tip, clean up you computer desktop so that you aren’t looking at a desktop of scattered files everyday.
-Download or buy organizational programs that can help you with all your files. I use Microsoft Office Groove (which I’ll soon do a post about). It’s a program that can all-in-one, hold project files, information about meetings, sketches, calendar events, and allows users to communicate together on a project..Love it!

Furniture Arrangement
-For small offices minimize the amount of furniture in the room to optimize on the general flow of the area. If you find that you have to regularly squeeze by furniture then that’s a sure sign that your office could need a new arrangement.
-When buying office furniture for your business/home office, see if you can find a set or pieces that work well together. Furniture comes in sets for a reason, they allow you to maintain organization while achieving the main purpose of office furniture, functionality.

Become Inspired By Your Work Environment

(Artwork by James Patterson)

Some additional ways to increase productivity at your job is to add elements that will inspire you to work harder to maintain focus. This can be anything from a picture of your family to artwork that you or an artist has made–it’s different for all of us.
All of the above ultimately equates to creating better harmony for your work environment. And when you have balance in anything, you opt to gain a lot from the experience.

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<3 Love Ya!
-Mel

We’ve all been there…whether it’s during a networking or social event. But we’ve all come across those times when we’re wondering if we’re making a good impression, if our conversation is as interesting as we hoped it would be.

What better way to make sure you’re giving off the right impression then to correct any poor body language you’re giving off in that exact moment.
I do this often since I’m continuously learning about business and engaging in networking opportunities that require me to evoke the professionalism and confidence to gain new clients.

So the next time you’re feeling a little self conscious about where you stand, or just want to quickly analyze the kind of reception you’re getting in an effort to correct and improve your evening, here are some signs you can keep in mind.

10 Signs of Bad Body Language

5. Looking down too much

Very bad personal habit of mine, I used to do it just to spite my mother when we walked down the street. Confident people stand tall and proud–not necessarily proud in the stuck up way but in the manner that they know and embrace their worth.
Broken body language such as lopsided shoulders or hunching over exudes low self esteem and isn’t the type of language that brings people over to you from across the room.

4. Nervous Fidgets

Before you enter any networking situation while nervous pangs are causing your body to spasm or fidget, take a moment to relax. Nervous fidgets are something that you can get away with if they’re subtle, but we often don’t realize that we are the ones who bring the attention to our nervous habits. You could have a stain on your shirt that no one would notice until someone realizes you’ve been tugging at it all night. Stand outside in the fresh air prior to an event and take in deep breaths to calm you and slow down you’re increased heart rate.

3. Bringing anger to the party

Debbie Downer anyone? Sometimes you can’t always get out of a networking event, nor should you, but avoid bringing existing anger to any event you attend. Whether your girlfriend just dumped you or some idiot tried to run you off the road, never let that anger settle and dampen your mood. People are unaware of their body language 24/7, and regardless of what you may think, your body language is a direct reflection of how you feel in that exact moment–whether you try to suppress certain emotions or not. If you’re having trouble livening up your mood do what I do sometimes and think of something either you really enjoy doing or love. Let that happiness radiate and immediately change your mood and by the end of the night you may be setting up deals to make serious business happen.
Oh, and before I forget, if something pisses you off prior to going to an event…don’t talk about it! That may be one of the biggest turnoffs in any situation. Leave your problems at home and embrace new opportunities.

2. Not loosening up

Successful people are usually very charismatic and almost informal in their demeanor. They are comfortable with their position and have no need to impress people that have nothing to offer. Note: this does not mean that it’s okay to become comfortable as a conceited bastard lol..but rather that people are drawn to others who are the life of the party–even if in business. You can balance professionalism with informality and sometimes it just takes a little practice to understand how both will serve their purposes. One way of knowing if you’re too tense is if you begin to wear your shoulders as earrings.

1. Forcing a smile

It may sound cliche, but one of the best ways to exude good body language is to genuinely smile. Genuine smiles non-embarrassingly show teeth, cause the cheeks to peak, and create wrinkles at the corners of the eyes. And although if you exaggerate enough, you can make a smile look genuine, I wouldn’t recommend it. Learn to vary your smiles with subtle ones and big ones for smiling too much can make you come off too eager looking. And never force a smile, because although you may be smiling the rest of your body will communicate how uncomfortable you really are.

Now can you catch yourself in the act?

Although I wouldn’t suggest obsessively worrying about your body language, being a little more conscious of how to correct negativity will empower you to face future networking events with confidence and positivity.

100th Post

I just realized that this is officially my 100th post. It excites me to continue on and I can’t wait to get to the 200th..

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<3 Love Ya!
-Mel