🍎 food for thought

It would probaly make sense to have an overarching theme to these newsletters right? This week’s theme is confidence. I struggled with my own confidence for the better part of my life (and still do sometimes) during school, university and in my personal life. I also never meant to become - for the lack of a better word - an ‘influencer’ or content creator and putting myself on camera was far down on my list.

The funny thing is, no one forced me to do all of this. No one even encouraged me at the beginning when I started out writing blogs and tutorials to help people. No one taught me what a personal brand was or how I could leverage it in the design world. But all of the projects I started (and even the ones I didn’t finish) helped me to gain a little bit of confidence, bit by bit.

I’m still terrible at recording YouTube videos, telling myself calmly that ‘I can do this’ after my 56th take. My stomach gets knots right before I have to present or give an interview. But, I would do it all again if I needed to. This is a lifelong skill that I’ve been working on and it’s paid off in more ways than one.

Through writing, I’ve learnt how to communicate in a way that actually engages people and tells a story. Script writing has helped me stay ahead and publish content that’s useful to others. I actually just finished a 30-day series called The Drawing Board over on my Instagram and I had several comments telling me how much they loved the series, or the camera work or just how useful the tips were.

What I’ve learned 👇🏼

• Confidence is a skill that takes years - there’s not really a shortcut to it in my opinion. However, you probably can train yourself to ‘fake it till you make it’ and come across as being the version of yourself that is confident in whichever aspect.

• I’ve had several calls this month with Part 1 students looking for jobs and the thing they all tell me is that they’re unsure of how to build their personal brand and essentially sell their skills to an employer. Confidence is a big slice of the pie, but so is practice. More on this later.

• January always feels like a drag am I right? It’s been a month of building up to some really exciting things coming my way and even though I get quite anxious about new things, I remember that it’s also how I felt right before all my past projects and endeavours. At the other end of the tunnel, there’s a great moment or memory waiting.

🍗 content nuggets

I’m not sure what ‘genre’ of YouTube content the following video would fall under, but I enjoyed the analysis of current and trending issues. Fun fact: I wrote my thesis on the concept of third places and I’ve seen it almost ‘trending’? in some weird way online.

I know nothing about the world of therapy so not quite sure how accurage the reel below is, but I resonate a lot with the idea of doing activities outside of your comfort zone as a form of ‘exposure therapy’. I struggle with perfectionism on a daily basis. I start a new project and get lost in the fine details, or I procrastinate because I need things to be perfect.

her.healthful

View more on Instagram

You guys already know I love spontaneity. In the video below, Jed travels to Japan to surprise his best friend and aside from just being SO wholesome, I really want to explore the idea of solo travelling some time this year. My gripe with family holidays is always that everyone just gets too tired too quickly and exploration goes out the window.

🌶️ spicy tips

Like I mentioned, I’ve been sharing content on portfolio tips and design advice over on Instagram. A lot of people are asking for posts around finding a job in architecture. But I wanted to give you the platform and ask what your tips would be - just hit reply to this email and lemme know! I’ll make a post with all your tips and credit you of course.

🔥 on the back burner

A while back I read Ali Abdaal’s new book, Feel-Good Productivity. I’ve summarised 3 of the major lessons that I think you guys could benefit from in my latest video, linked below.

And last but not least an EXCLUSIVE just for you guys!! I’m really excited to be sharing with you Open Studio’s first in-person event, in collaboration with Karakusevic Carson Architects. Tickets officially release next week so keep your eyes out because I’m sure they will be snatched up quick.

Check it out here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pitching-your-portfolio-tickets-804042160747

— Sana x