do what you love Page 33 of 82

Get comfortable with being a beginner

Posted on 2014-01-20 at 4:51 pm.

Baby card by Freya

I have been a mum for 3 weeks and 5 days now. And the truth is that 3 weeks and 5 days ago I had absolutely no idea what I was doing in this most important of roles. I have puke on my shirt, bags under my eyes and a handbag full of muslins and nappies. But I have never been happier or more full of wonder, and I feel more comfortable with each passing day.

As of today, the truth is I still have mostly no idea what I am doing, but I seem to be getting by with instinct, cuddles and lots of help from Mr K (and a few handy hints from this brilliant book). I have had more than one “Shall I just stay in my PJs?” moment, but in the end I have stuck with it and am making progress one step at a time.

The reality is that in less than a month I have gone from zero knowledge to some knowledge, however limited, and I trust that over the coming months and years I will get better with practice.

As adults we are often afraid of being beginners. We don’t like not to have all the answers, to risk looking silly, or to mess up. But the truth is, if you don’t like what you are doing, you need to try something new in order to do what you love. And if you are going to try something new, you need to get comfortable with being a beginner.

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Sometimes it is EASIER to stay in your PJs… but it is rarely BETTER to do so

Posted on 2014-01-15 at 4:09 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

The day started off well. A feed for the baby and tea and toast for me. Then got Sienna dressed in a cute new outfit and put on a new top myself, all ready for a little trip out. We were off to the cinema to the parent & baby showing of ’12 Years a Slave’. But then things started to go rapidly downhill.

Just as we were about to head out of the door Sienna wanted a feed
Then I realised I hadn’t had a shower
This was swiftly followed by the arrival of a big baby poo requiring a full change of clothes (bye bye lovely new outfit)
When we eventually headed out of the door it started raining
Then I realised I had a big hole in my boot (found this out when I stepped in a giant puddle)
I was late and flurried, and wondering whether it would have been easier just to stay in, in my PJs

But then we got to the cinema, found a lovely comfy seat, and Sienna fell asleep on my knee for the entire film. Afterwards I went for lunch with some friends (also mothers with small babies) and came back feeling refreshed, revitalised, and pleased to have got out of the house and into the fresh air (and the film was really good too). It would have been so easy to stay at home, but I was glad I made the effort in the end.

After just three weeks of motherhood I can say that it is totally amazing, and I am absolutely loving having our precious baby. But it can be exhausting too – your time is no longer your own, and you can’t plan anything (which is very alien to someone like me).

But as I discovered this morning, and as is true in so many areas of life, sometimes it is easier to stay in your PJs, but it is rarely better in the end to do so. The good stuff happens when you get out of the door…

Make 2014 the year you commit to your art career! (MATS is back…)

Posted on 2014-01-09 at 11:15 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Happy new year! We have a feeling that 2014 is going to be a very exciting year, and hope it is a great one for you. Why not make this the year you commit to your art career, invest in yourself and pour everything into making a living from your talent? If you are ready to take your art from good to great, and start to truly flourish as a professional artist, we have some special things in store for you. Read on…

Make Art That Sells Part A& B is back! Registration is now open for the March 2014 class (begins March 31). These are two 5-week e-courses which give you everything you need to know to make and sell commercially-viable art in the hottest markets, learning from someone who has sold art for products worth over $100 million! Find out more and register here.

Want to know what kind of impact this course can have on your career? Here is what alumnus Emily Balsley had to say about it:

“I went into the course a fairly “green” illustrator and I have come out of it ready to take on the world one illustration at a time – with new skills, self-confidence, focus and drive.

When I first signed up for the course, it was hard for me to justify paying so much for this class when I was hardly making any money as an illustrator! But that was the point of the course, right?!? With encouragement from my husband, I decided it was time to do something for myself and look at it as an investment for my career. And now that it’s over, it was worth every penny. I can’t imagine how many hours of planning went into this class, but thank you so much for putting in all the effort. It really shows.

This is what I’m supposed to be doing, and I couldn’t be more excited about what opportunities lie ahead.”

Read Emily’s full review of the course here. Find out more about the course and book your place here!

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Our brand new online experience Make Art That Sells: Assignment Bootcamp is filling up fast, ahead of class beginning on February 3. This is a structured six-month program of monthly assignments to help you build a strong body of work. You will get five professional-level art assignments over six months to help you create great pieces that are ready to sell. Each month you will have three weeks to complete the assignment. You will then have the option to post your work to a public gallery where it can be viewed by peers, art buyers and industry experts. Find out more and register here.

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The Global Talent Search will soon be back – this is your opportunity to win two years’ representation from top art agent Lilla Rogers, along with a host of licensing deals. This is a highly regarded and fiercely contested opportunity, so if you want to maximize your chances of winning we would strongly encourage you to take one of our Make Art That Sells classes to help you understand what sells, how to present your work, and how to create great art that is commercially viable. More details on the Global Talent Search coming in the Spring…

So what are you waiting for? Take the leap, make the commitment, and get cracking!

Life According to Mr K: New Beginnings (Fatherhood and Doing What You Love)

Posted on 2014-01-06 at 10:00 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

As we enter into a New Year we first reflect on the previous year. There will undoubtedly be aspects of our life that have been exhilarating and taken a breath away. There have also been times that will have tried our patience and prompted us to ask the question ‘What am I doing this for?’

I am very aware that my 2013 was a very special year and one which I will hold dear to my heart. Of all the changes and decisions made in 2013 the greatest moment was on Christmas Day when my wife and I became parents for the first time. Sienna May Kempton was born. The moment she was placed onto my wife’s chest, all covered up, was the moment my life changed forever.

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Make 2014 amazing (and meet our baby girl!)

Posted on 2014-01-06 at 4:57 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

Happy New Year! We hope you had a lovely festive season and have eased into 2014 with high hopes for the year ahead. Here at DWYL the past couple of weeks have been something of a blur after welcoming our baby girl into the world on Christmas Day! Sienna May Kempton was born at 3am as the perfect Christmas present, and has filled our days with wonder, smiles and not much sleep ever since! We feel like we have started 2014 with the ultimate new beginning, and are stepping into the greatest adventure of our lives.

We have no doubt that our sweet girl will change everything, and have a major impact on the kind of year 2014 will become. But we also want to consider our wider dreams and plans, and have been using our free kit ‘New Year’s Revolution’ to help us do this.

If you haven’t downloaded your copy you can get it here for free. You can also join the hundreds of people already in the New Year’s Revolution Facebook group where we will be sharing prompts, discussions and encouragement throughout the year to help you make 2014 amazing.

Wherever you find yourself at the beginning of this shiny new year, we wish you health and happiness, and hope you can make 2014 exactly the kind of year you want it to be.

Beth and the team

Our Christmas Miracle – introducing Sienna May Kempton

Posted on 2013-12-27 at 6:41 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

On Christmas Day we received the most precious gift ever – our baby girl was born. Sienna May Kempton arrived in the world at 3am, weighing 8 lb 15 ozs.

She is the most beautiful baby we have ever seen and we are truly and utterly in love.

One day old

Christmas was magical before. Now it will always be even more special. We wish you all a very happy festive season – we are spending ours staring at our little bundle of joy in awe and amazement.

Two days old

Beth and Paul

Unwrapped: Can we celebrate Christmas differently? (A Christmas Message from Susie)

Posted on 2013-12-19 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

This post is written by Susannah Keene who is lending a helping hand at DWYL whilst Beth prepares herself for motherhood. Susie met Beth when they worked together at UNICEF in London and they then spent a couple of years working together in Ghana before moving back to the UK to get married. She is expecting her first baby in the New Year and in the meantime she’s enjoying exploring new opportunities for DWYL’s development and sharing growth ideas with Paul for 2014…

If you ask someone to describe to you what Christmas means to them, I bet a lot of people would say that it is a time of celebration, a time to spend with your family, to share presents and indulge in copious amounts of food and treats. Year after year, we follow the same routine and, whilst the majority of us enjoy it, Christmas can just be an event in our annual calendars that we switch into auto-pilot for.

I vividly remember during my teenage years that every Christmas Day afternoon I would burst out crying; a release of the feeling that had built during the day brought on by the sheer number of presents that were exchanged amongst our privileged family. Did we really need all of this stuff? What about all of those people in the world who weren’t as fortunate as us? Why was so much money being wasted on things that were only going to be put at the back of a cupboard?

And yet, I find myself today falling into this cultural trap of giving presents for birthdays, Christmas, weddings and christenings because it is expected of you. So why do I do it? Is it because I want them to do the same for me? Definitely not. The pleasure for me lies in thinking carefully about something that someone special might enjoy, in wrapping the present to make it look beautiful and in watching the joy of the individual receive the present. If this is the case, why do all of these things have to be achieved through giving a physical present?

One of the main reasons we have the custom of giving and receiving presents at Christmas is to remind us of the presents of Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh given to Jesus by the Three Wise Men. In our consumer driven society, our senses are attacked at this time of year by brands persuading us that we need to buy their product. But what if we looked at the gift of giving in a different way? What if each year we decided to give something of ourselves at Christmas time instead of another bar of soap or pair of socks?

We all have individual talents that others would love to learn from us, own things that we can share and have time to spend with others so why don’t we give those valuable things at Christmas instead? I personally can’t think of anything better than opening a gift this Christmas from someone offering to spend a morning with me teaching me a new skill or spending an afternoon to go to my favourite museum. Yes of course I enjoy receiving lovely new things for our house or new clothes to wear but they aren’t really the things that make me happy. This Christmas I’m looking forward to teaching my Mum how to read sheet music so that she can enjoy, and participate more easily, in her new choir.

But perhaps most importantly, or relevantly, you could spend some time with a loved one this Christmas to help them discover what it is that they truly love doing. If you’ve taken one of our courses, could you share some of the things that you have learnt with them? Could you spend some time to talk through and encourage them to find their passion and participate in a life doing what they love? The gift of giving doesn’t have to be the exchange of a physical item. I feel sure that if you helped someone find their passion this Christmas it would be the best gift they ever received.

For further inspiration around giving actions visit The Do Nation.

Big city lights

Posted on 2013-12-17 at 8:55 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

In the final few weeks before a baby arrives you often find yourself “Will this be our last holiday/dinner out/cinema trip for a while?” Although I know there are many joys to come with the arrival of our little bundle, I am sure there are many things that will be harder to do, like going up to London for dinner and the theatre… which is why Mr K treated me to a lovely day doing just that. We went to see Sam Mendes’ brilliant production of Roald Dahl’s Charlie & The Chocolate Factory in Drury Lane, before heading to Regent Street and wandering around Covent Garden to soak up the Christmas atmosphere among the beautiful shop windows and strings of fairy lights. I am not a city girl at heart, but I do love the way towns and cities come alive at Christmas, with twinkles and sparkles and a touch of magic in the air. I came away inspired by the creativity behind the window displays, the imaginative theatre production, and the energy of the capital.

What festive loveliness have you spotted where you are?

Alternative meeting spaces

Posted on 2013-12-13 at 9:58 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

With Beth on maternity leave our working day looks a little different lately, but we still have Mr & Mrs K meetings to chat about things coming up, and to look ahead to next year.

One of the great things about living in a city like Brighton is the proliferation of cafes, and we like to meet there to chat somewhere different from our home office. A different environment never fails to spark new ideas… Lately one of our favourite places is somewhere that won’t be around for long – the ice bar next to the temporary ice rink, which has been built in the grounds of Brighton Pavilion.

With Beth heavily pregnant there may be no ice skating for us, but it is lovely to sit on their comfy sofas next to a sparkling Christmas tree, looking out through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the people skating round and round, laughing and stumbling and laughing some more. Ahh office life is hard!

What is your favourite place for meetings?

Nelson Mandela – tribute to a true leader

Posted on 2013-12-06 at 12:39 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela

A few years ago I had the great honour of meeting Nelson Mandela, one of the most inspirational men of our age. When I worked at UNICEF and was responsible for our relationship with Manchester United FC, I joined the team on their tour of South Africa. We had a private audience with Nelson Mandela. He was already an old man then, but he was such a strong presence.

Sir Bobby Charlton, Sir Alex Ferguson and Ryan Giggs shared a few words about the impact he had had on them personally, and it was amazing to see some of the most famous footballers in the world humbled by this true leader of men. I felt incredibly lucky to be in that room at that moment. Nelson Mandela will long remain a beacon of hope, a symbol of good, and a demonstration of the triumph of the human spirit. Rest in peace.

On that same trip we visited a number of projects supported by Manchester United in Cape Town, including the Tygerberg Hospital and a community centre. The players were in high spirits, and there was something about that whole trip (and the country itself) which clearly inspired them and helped remind them how they can use their profile as a force for good in the world. Nelson Mandela was not just a man who inspired a nation, but a man who inspired people from all walks of life, all over the world. Here are a few pictures from that trip. – Beth

Kieran Richardson & Ryan Giggs (image: Getty Images)

With Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, one of the most gentle, thoughtful and generous football players I ever had the honour of working with (image: Getty Images)

Briefing the team on the way to the children’s hospital

Darren Fletcher, Jonny Evans and Ben Foster say goodbye to one of the children who shared their story that day (image: Getty Images)