A Creative Freelancer's Guide to Networking
How to "win" at social events and influence yourself into not panicking about meeting strangers
Upcoming poetry performance!
I’ll be performing as part of Occasians’ Asian Artist showcase on Weds 12 June! Tickets are free, book here!
Occasians is a platform for and by Asian creatives and artists, founded by my wonderful friend Ray Roberts (who will be co-hosting the night alongside the Queen of New Malden, Becky Lee Smith aka HangukHapa
The lineup looks GREAT and I can’t wait to see you there!
Hello gorgeous people! Thank you for all your lovely words on my last issue, great to hear that it’s sparked you to make your own income report!
Some personal news - I have moved back to London! Here’s an IG reel I made to announce my return.
After unpacking the 600th box, I was thinking about how to root yourself into a city. I moved just outside of London for 2.5 years and I’m feeling quite disconnected. I’m back now - but how do I get in?
This has been my six step plan at the moment:
DMing my friends! I’ve missed casually meeting up with my friends to hang out for a few hours. My friends are often also my creative colleagues, so it’s always a great chance to talk about how the creative world, get recommendations and personal introductions, and of course have a cheeky gossip about the industry 👀
DMing people I kind of know! I’m generally quite bold with this - if I’ve met someone interesting at an event/have bumped into them a few times at various occasions, I tend to find them on IG and shoot them a message. How it generally goes is ‘hello, lovely to meet you at [EVENT], [something nice and personal]’ and then something concrete that can lead to action. Either a meet up to chat further, an online call, “are you going to this event if so I’ll see you there” etc. Keep it doable, not too vague and low commitment with no demands to build a relationship. If it flops - it flops! Find someone else who wants to connect.
Going to events (as a guest)! There’s a lot of networking events and gatherings in the city. They continue to scare me and make me a little shy (doesn’t help that I tend to go to these events alone as some weird extreme challenge to myself). But, I keep in mind that the organisers REALLY want people to show up and have a good time, so they should be doing their best to help you. Also - everyone there is feeling the same as you!
Going to events (as a volunteer)! An underrated tip if you ask me. I’ve been a volunteer teacher for Four Winds Mahjong, a London based mahjong club! You should totally come to our sessions! This has been such a great way of meeting people, chatting with them and gets rid of the fear of awkward silences. If the conversation dies down - just focus on the mahjong tiles.
Me and some of the Four Winds Mahjong crew teaching at ESEA Publishing Network’s Summer Party!
Finding events and classes! I’ve been discovering events mostly through email newsletters. Some are through development programmes I’ve been part of, some are for the wider creative community. My top two are ILikeNetWorking and ArtsAdmin’s Anchor. Often when you go to one, you’ll hear about another and so the dominoes go. Eventbrite is also actually really good, so search for events in your local area!
Open mics! I used to go to a LOT of open mics back when I first moved to London in 2016. This was huge for my creative career, social life and also friend-making. I’ve been out of the scene for a long time - a lot of nights have died out but like a phoenix, many new ones have surged up. I’ve heard it’s a lot of new young ‘un's on the scene now, so I’m a little nervous but I will accept my new role as a poetry elder.
If any of my creative colleagues are reading this and would like to have a meet up/chat/go to an event together/learn to play mahjong, please drop me a line! You can hit reply to this email.
Until next time!