Always remember is this something that you actually want to do or are you just thinking that because you live in a capitalistic society?
Today I'm gonna be recommending five self-help and career development books
I have gotten live requests about this because I do try to read nonfiction and self-help books pretty regularly
I've also gotten a lot of questions about what advice I would give to people who are looking to start out in design or how
To move up in the career or how I ended up being an art director at Twitter. So along with each book recommendation
I will share a little bit of my own personal
experiences and my advice the reason why I am finally making this video now is because good wall is sponsoring this video good wall is
an app that is basically a positive community for you to show your achievements network with other people and also find other
scholarships and jobs
you can build your own personal profile to showcase all of your
Achievements and your skills and ideas all in one place when you go on the feed. There's a whole bunch of
Inspiration of what other people are doing?
I think the most useful part of it is the opportunities to have a hand pick different
Opportunities or awards or scholarships? You can be connected to internships and jobs
You can find me on good wall and check out the achievements
I added you can add feedback. If you want. I can even check out your profile and comments as well. This shit is free
There's no premium version
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Where you can download it and you don't have to pay anything for it at all now on to the recommendations
I work as a designer and as an art director
So I will say that my advice is pretty much limited to create a field
so if you want to be a doctor or have some other kind of smart job you're on your own because I don't have the
Brain capacity for that but I will try to help as best as I can
Some of these books are geared more towards like creative feels and then some of them can be a bit more applicable
This is a book that I read recently that even though it wasn't anything new to me if you are
Starting out in a creative field
This is the kind of book that you could get as like an introductory kind of lesson that is little black book written by
Ot. Khawaja
This is a toolkit for working creative women
Although I don't think this should be limited to just women obviously like anyone can read it
It's basically a travel-size career handbook that you can use as a go-to resource
When you are trying to figure out kind of career that you want this handbook has
Bite-sized advice that is categorized into different sections for you to figure out how to build your own career
some of these sections are like how to negotiate a pay raise how to build a personal brand how to network how to
overcome creative blocks
It's pretty much all the things that you're gonna have to deal with
Inevitably if you want to be a creative professional since this book covers a lot of topics
I am going to just choose one as my personal antidote
One of these sections in this book is to negotiate for your salary and this is also a question that I get asked a lot
both from YouTube viewers and also from my friends people feel pretty timid about asking for a raise or for a
Promotion, but honestly, it's just one of those things where you have to suck it up and do it
I personally have started a Google Doc with all the great things. I did throughout the year
So if I'm working on a project
And the project got amazing feedback from the client or my other team members. I worked with had positive things to say about it
I'll track them down in a Google Doc being able to record those inputs from other people and having a paper trail helps my
Argument that I'm doing a good job throughout the year
It can be hard to remember every single good thing that you did it helps for me to have this running doc that I update
Regularly every time like I lead a project or I hit a milestone
Then when it's time for performance reviews or when you talk to your manager and ask for a raise you have all the receipts
It's not about you feeling like you should get a promotion
It's more about you knowing that you should get a promotion
Because of X Y Z and if you can connect those things to the job
Qualifications for the position that you want then that's even better
The second book that I want to recommend is making ideas happen by Scott Belsky pretty much everyone can get any great idea
But it's the execution
that's really the crucial component of it this book essentially a compiled as practices like how to
Generate ideas in moderation and how to kill your ideas very liberally
He says that every task can be broken down into action steps references and backburner items
Stef's are the things that you need to do in order to make this idea happen references are
Related info or research for your project and backburner items are things that you have to do or it would be nice if you did
Them, but they're not higher priority compared to action steps
So if you're able to list all of those things
You can really make a plan that's actionable and you have to put in the hard work of organizing your timetable
Around action and around execution
A lot of people have asked me how I got started in design and how they could get started as well if they were interested
In pursuing that as a career and the advice that I always always give is create your own side
Projects if you are a designer, I would personally argue that having a good portfolio is more important than having a good GPA
That's something unique and it shows more about what you're interested in rather than things that you did only because you were required to do
It when I was a student, I didn't put any of my school projects in my portfolio
I gave myself my own projects these side projects were also a way for me to
Learn how to be a designer and the first project that I did was teaching myself how to use a program called
Sketch I had an idea to create a smart watch app that would help users perform CPR with the accurate rate of compression
I came up with the idea I did research on it and then I designed it on sketch
This is not a real app. This was just an idea that I had that I just made happen by designing it
I mapped out the user flow of how the app would work and it was just like a starter project for me to learn how
To use this program that I was very new to it doesn't matter if they're not real it matters more that you're able to
Convey it as if it were real for your portfolio
This was one of the projects that I think was a huge factor for how I got my first job at an ad agency
people were just impressed by the idea that I had and just the
Initiative that I had to make this a thing in the first place
Sometimes I made a website sometimes I made posters whatever idea I had
I just tried to channel it in any creative medium so that I could keep on
Practicing different programs like Photoshop or illustrator. The next book I want to recommend is the productivity project by Chris Bailey
This is an author who decided to spend a full year where he would test out different methods
Productivity and see which ones were the most effective he did a bunch of experiments and interviews and research about different ways that we approach
Productivity and which ones would be the most successful?
Some of the experiments that he did involve cutting out coffee from his diet living in isolation limiting smartphone usage
exercising more waking up early all the Tippett's of advice that you typically get but you've been too lazy to implement he kind of did
The work for you so that he can tell you whether it works or not
So it's interesting to see what works and what doesn't work
I think this book would be especially helpful during this weird period of quarantine enduring the
coronavirus to be more productive
with a project that you want to do or just have like a regular routine and try to be like a
Functional human being then you can check out this book and starting to think about different ways that you can try to tackle
Productivity it's gonna be different for everyone. Not every method is gonna be as effective for other people
So I'm still trying to figure out what works for me
I've had out different things and has always been hard for me to keep up with them what I have found to be consistent
For me so far is setting up a Pomodoro timer
I usually use my
Tomatoes calm which is a timer that says for 25 minutes where you just do work non-stop and every 25 minutes
There is a five-minute break. Sometimes I don't work the whole time
Actually most the time I don't work the whole time
I will put off starting any type of work for a long time and it's hard for me to focus on it, too
But when I see a timer and I know that it's ticking in the background that just helps me focus better than I usually would
I also physically write down my to-do list
I have tried so many different virtual to-do lists, like wunderlist Trello whatever millions of apps they have out there
I've never really stuck with them. Really
The only thing I've stuck with was just writing it physically what I found is that I prefer to do all of my work digitally
But when it comes to writing a to-do list or planning my schedule and my day I prefer to write it
physically
Just something about writing it makes it feel like I have to do it now and is also very satisfying
When you get to like cross out everything I will literally write out every single thing that I need to do
even if it's for stuff like
showering or taking out the trash every little thing I can think of I will write it down because I know that I
Such a lazy ask that if I do not write it down. I'm not gonna do it
A lot of it is trial and error
But I think that you can start off with that productivity book to see what methods you want to try out and see which ones
Stick for you, and then you can start to develop good habits from there
The fourth book I want to recommend is Crucial Conversations?
Is it the book that I would recommend to literally every single person even if you're not a working professional?
Learning how to manage conversations is so important just for relationships in general
There are going to be so many times throughout your life where you're gonna have to deal with a crucial conversation
Which is basically a fancy word for a tough conversation that you don't want to deal with at all
But you have to in order to be an adult, but obviously that title would be too long
It's so hard for me to choose just one
takeaway from this book because I agree with thoroughly everything it says but I think one of the most
Important takeaways that I've had from it is when you are approaching a crucial conversation
aka a
stupid-ass adult conversation that you don't want to deal with but you have to it is very
Important to figure out what you want the goal of this conversation to be if you are
Confronting someone whether that's your a manager or your coworker or your boyfriend or whatever
What is the goal that you want to happen from this conversation? It's just so that you have a safer working environment
What are you trying to achieve from this because when you're able to set out this goal?
Then that will really inform the way that you approach the conversation
If you don't have a goal beforehand and you just run with your emotions most of the time
It's just gonna end up with arguments where you're more concerned about being right or about your ego rather than whatever it is
You are trying to achieve it's even better
If you can try to have a mutual goal
Between you and the person that you're talking to that way
The conversation is actually about two people working productively together rather than two people arguing from opposite ends
You have to be persuasive not abrasive
that's the key point here that
Book Twitter could use some help on but that's a whole nother video all together my personal anecdote from this
I have so fuckin many I had to practice this a lot at my last job
one of the many hundreds of examples I can think of was when we hired a career director who was just
terrible at his job
He was someone who was not putting in the work that he should be and on top of that
He was just a shitty person overall
He directly managed one of my co-workers and he always made her feel so awful
He would make her cry out of work. He would just do or say things that would be really hurtful to her self-esteem
He was also a low-key racist because he called me the only other Asian girl's name
Even though we looked totally different and we had totally different names. He was making a rape jokes while we were working
it was a fucking mess and
He wasn't being checked at all like his behavior was being enabled by leadership and it was so frustrating
This was one of like the most emotional situations and dilemmas
I've had to go through having those types of Crucial Conversations
where I'm able to set aside my emotions and just focus on the goal was so important for me to
Effectively convey the issues I had about this person and hopefully try to get him the fuck out of here all of the women on
Our team did not like him because he was an asshole
Unfortunately when leadership is predominated by white men, they don't see the issue
So it's like how do you communicate that issue without setting them off? They didn't want to be accused of being sexist
So if you accuse them of something like that, or if you imply it
Then they will shut down based on how sensitive leadership gets over topics about diversity or sexism
I knew that it wouldn't have been effective for me to jump into the conversation and be like I don't like this person because he's
Racist and sexist even though those would be valid reasons for me
Those wouldn't be valid reasons for the person that I was talking to who didn't necessarily
Prioritize those things instead. I tried to frame the conversation based on our company values
Every company has a set of values that should be in your employee handbook or on your website or whatever and you can use those
values as a way to establish
That common goal that way when you are bringing up a concern about a project or about another employee
It's not about your personal feelings. It's about your concerns that this person is not following company values
For example, one of our values was making sure that we had the highest bar of excellence when it comes to performing these projects
I was concerned that this person was not performing to the high fired excellence because he was not managing his time
well
He was not putting in an equal amount of work compared to other
Co-workers another company value that we had was to make good company
I was concerned that he was lowering team morale because he did x and y and z and those things
Contradicted the company values that we want to make sure that we implement so that we can have a healthy working environment
Bla bla bla that kind of bullshit like that you're able to align your goals with the person that you're talking to
That's just an easier way for you to be on the same page and that way it doesn't seem like the conversation is
emotional or based on personal bias
It's just based on things that you're trying to look out for for the team
And for the company also happy to say we got that asshole fired
But I'm even happier to say that I no longer have to deal with those types of conversations since I've started working on Twitter
I have not had any problems with leadership at all. There is a significantly less amount of bullshit
Not only are the people in leadership positions at Twitter diverse
They also don't let ego get in the way which is so important
unfortunately
It is so rare to find a workplace where the organization doesn't have an egotistical person or a bad manager
You will probably have to deal with it multiple times. I think Crucial Conversations
Is such a valuable book for you to figure out how to navigate something like that?
Especially if you are a woman of color you are gonna have to deal with that shit like that's your right of passage
Okay, the level of bullshit that you're gonna have to deal with it's gonna be so fucking high. This is required reading for you
Okay, unfortunately, these are the skills that we have to learn in order to thrive in this capitalistic society
So, you know just make the best of what you have check out that book and good fucking luck
And then the last book that I'm gonna recommend is full time you by meg Lewis
This is a self discovery workbook that helps you figure out what kind of career that you want specifically it helps
You create a career that is uniquely tailored to you and your strengths and your interests the workbook guides you into
identifying your strengths and being able to pinpoint the qualities that make you unique and
Translate them to a career that only a person like you could have it also helps you define your life
Purpose that will drive your career and your life decisions. I read this book when I was applying for my new job
I was at a point in my life where even though I
Supposedly had what I wanted which was to be an art director
I had an ad agency and get to work with all these cool clients like Google and Adidas and have a beautiful
portfolio and all that stuff
I realized I still
wasn't happy so many of the things that I thought that I wanted was only because I thought that's what I should be doing and
So this is just my personal advice to you that if you are in a position of privilege
Where you are able to have a little bit of influence or decision-making and what you want to do
Don't limit yourself to what you feel like you should be doing if you're able to
pursue what you actually want to do then just go for it because
this resulted in so much angst when I was trying so hard to climb up the corporate ladder that by the time I finally achieved
Several promotions later. I was like, why am I still not?
Content and it was because I realized my motivations were misguided. I didn't want to work for Google
I thought I did because Google is like a big company and a big brand and is something that I thought I should
Want it didn't align with the things that I was truly interested in doing
So I appreciated having this workbook for me to really reflect on
Qualities that make me unique that I could channel for a job and the things that I was interested in doing even before I became
A designer. I had always been interested in
Storytelling in any kind of medium whether that's writing or through design or through videos or a photo shoot or whatever
I liked all of those different mediums as long as it is all rooted in storytelling
That's why I have written books ever since I was little that's why I like documenting my travels through vlogs and videos
I like being able to document my experiences and stories and my feelings
so if I were to find a way to
create and document and share
stories in a way that's creative and
engages with other people and be able to make a career out of that whether that's being an art director or
Being an author. Those are the kinds of things that are in line with what I truly wanted to you
These were the things I talked about in my interview at Twitter because they were interested in what I actually wanted from
So I really emphasized on wanting to do something involving
storytelling wanting to do something that was creative and artistic and not just for the sake of boosting sales because I didn't care about
Sales and advertising. I cared more about the story and impact on people
I expressed those things during my
interview I Twitter and I think it came off as very genuine and from the heart because I mean they hired me so here I
Am basically my personal advice
Is that the more you know what you want and who you are then you can sear yourself to be on the right direction
You're not going to know it right away, and that's totally fine
But it's important that you don't neglect what you truly want to do
It's very easy to get caught up in getting promotions at a fancy job or at a fancy company
but if it's not something that you actually want
Then it's not actually gonna make you happy and it's not gonna make you happy then what the fuck was this all for?
Always remember is this something that you actually want to do or are you just thinking that because you live in a capitalistic society?
but if you have the privilege to
Actually pursue things that fulfill you and that you want to do just take advantage of that
So many people aren't able to do that. If you're able to do it you got to do it for the rest of them
So those are five books. I'm recommending if you have made this far. Thanks for watching
And thank yous a good wall for sponsoring this video
I hope that at least one of the books or pieces of advice was helpful. I hope you'll unsubscribe for my channel and
Goodbye
Well
You can say it's just a game love you just the same