- Hey designers!
Today I wanna talk to you about an event
I went to recently called Epicurrence,
this is the t-shirt from it,
and also just about generally investing
in yourself and in your career.
(lively music)
If you haven't heard of Epicurrence,
it's a series of events run by Dann Petty (popping)
and they're kind of like an un-conference
in that it's not where you go long
and there's a schedule and there's talks
and workshops and things,
it's more of like a gathering of people
and conversations structured around a certain topic.
I heard good things about those event series,
it seemed like everyone who attended gets a lot out of it
and it just seemed like the place to be, you know?
So, when Epicurrence Unknown was announced
and they said it had a theme of design leadership
and it was gonna be held in Tennessee
in the Great Smoky Mountains,
I was like, I think this is it.
I think this is the Epicurrence that I have to go to.
Small side note, I went to an Epicurrence-run event
earlier on the year actually called Winter Work Week,
but that was more of proper conference,
I hosted a workshop there
and there was keynote talks and things,
so I was excited to check out
this like classic Epicurrence, as it was intended, event.
So even though, you know,
I'd seen people tweeting about these events
for the past few years,
I still wasn't 100% sure exactly
what to expect from being there,
but I knew I just wanted to go in with an open mind
and be ready to meet people.
It helps that this was a really small group.
I think there was 35 people there,
so, you know, that's not too overwhelming
for an introvert like me.
Now the value that I got from Epicurrence
almost started before the event did
'cause I drove out there from Nashville
to the Smoky Mountains
which was like a four hour drive or so with Ran,
who you've seen his channel before, I'm sure,
he is Flux on YouTube and if you're not subscribed to it,
go and do that because he is probably
my favorite design YouTuber.
We drove out there with Oliver,
who as we learned on our journey,
is one of the founders thredUP,
so it was a really interesting car ride,
lots of good conversations and we did some exploring
and things along the way, as well.
It was just fun right away and obviously I already knew Ran,
but I didn't know Oliver before this,
but the fact that we were able
to talk so easily right from the start
just made me really excited for the few days ahead.
On the first night after we'd had some dinner,
some discussions kicked off with Sara and Dan from Dribbble,
and they really did set a really good tone for the event,
talking immediately like about leadership and how hard it is
and like the things that they struggle with.
Epicurrence has a thing called the Nest
where people can like be really open in knowing
that people won't repeat things they're saying
back to the rest of the world, so,
like I'm not going to go into extreme detail
about what they were talking about, but,
just trust me that it was really eye opening
and things got vulnerable right away which I loved.
The event was across three evenings and two days
and we were staying in these tents.
It feels weird to call them a tent
because it felt really more like,
I don't know, a cross between a tent and a little hut
and it had a wooden floor, had a proper bed,
it had an actual bathroom and things like that,
but the walls were made of canvas.
We were staying at Under Canvas in the Smokey Mountains
if you've heard of that like chain of places before.
I think they have them in Zion and Yellowstone,
possibly some other places, too.
But, yeah, they're really cool,
they had a wood stove in them as well to keep us warm
because it was extremely cold there.
The whole campsite was booked out for Epicurrence,
so that was pretty cool.
We had this one main like lobby area,
we would gather for meals and for evening discussions
with a fireplace outside
for like lots of good fireside chats,
that really did give it this slight community atmosphere
and also, there was no cellphone service there and no wifi.
So, that forced us to like talk to each other
instead of being on our phones.
We couldn't just like duck back to our tent
and do some work or something,
and I actually kind of liked that.
Again, I was nervous about that to start with,
but, you know, it turned out to be for the best.
During the two days we did activities
so the first day we went for this hike
were we walked some llamas.
I thought when they first mentioned going on a hike
with llamas that maybe the llamas would carry our stuff
'cause it was gonna be a long hike or something,
but no, we just walked them
like on a leash as if you would a dog.
It was a pretty unique experience and very, very fun.
And the next day the activity we did
was riding around in ATVs through like some trails
in the National Park, so, you know that was super fun.
So that was a day hanging out together,
getting to know each other and like, you know,
just doing stuff and having experiences together
which was really fun.
And then in the evenings, just like on the first night,
there was more discussions, the people leading on a sofa
and everyone else was like on chairs
and things around them wrapped in blankets.
It was a very cozy atmosphere and completely unlike
any conference we've ever been to
which is why I guess they don't call it a conference.
So, those discussions were great,
people were super honest and open,
and after the official stuff wrapped up
we'd all go out by the fire and make s'mores
and continue talking about whatever like, I don't know?
Thoughts came to mind as we were listening
and joining in with the conversation.
Now tickets to this event were quite expensive.
They were I think $3,500 dollars for a ticket.
I got a discount on mine because I'd spoken
at Winter Work Week earlier on in the year.
But, still, I feel like even if I paid full price
I definitely would've gotten the value out of this event
to warrant going and to like make it worth it.
I don't know if it's just 'cause I've been to
so many design conferences by now
that I'm getting a bit burnt out on keynote talks,
but this format of it being discussions and conversations
about super deep topics just really connected with me
and it's something that I haven't found
at any other event before.
I got a lot of clarity while on this event
about what I want from my future in my career
and just in general advice on leading
and the emotional weight that comes
with having people follow you, I suppose?
This was like the ultimate form of like networking for me,
even though that is definitely the wrong word for it.
But I was meeting other people in the design industry
who were all like well above me,
well ahead in their careers,
and we were just having really good conversations,
and I feel like they are people now that I can turn to
when I do need help and in turn if there's anything
that I can help them with,
I know that they will feel comfortable coming to me
because we had those great conversations
and we like built up that relationship over these few days.
I think especially as an introvert,
that level of connection I find really hard
to create at a traditional conference
where you're going along to talks and things.
I've definitely gotten better at it over the years,
but I often find that I might meet someone kinda cool
at a conference but we really get to know each other
when we follow each other on Twitter afterwards.
For example, like, you know, maybe we hang out
and get coffee next time I'm in their city.
But, this event kind of like compressed
all that getting-to-know-each other
and building up a rapport and like a level of trust
into the few days and I think that's amazing.
I feel like this year, in particular,
I've really learned the value of networking
and how it is just building up relationships with people.
I used to think that networking wasn't for me,
it wasn't really valid in my career,
it was like a, you know, big corporate business thing.
But, networking is just,
like I said, building relationships,
so I think that's valid for anyone
no matter what like industry they're in
and I think the design community is still kinda small
and so there's like no excuse for not trying
to get involved with it and make those connections.
So, all this to say I think that investing
and going along to this event is one of the best things
that I've done for my career this year.
It, like I said, was expensive,
but absolutely it was the right choice.
So, if you have something right now
where you're thinking of investing in yourself,
your personal growth, your career growth
and you're like unsure about it,
I think you should go for it.
I think that events and, you know,
anything that you're investing in is always
a case of you get out what you put in, so like I said,
I went along to Epicurrence with an open mind
and I wanted to have real conversations with people,
so I like had to pluck up the courage sometimes
to actually start them or like join a group, you know?
But, it was totally worth it, I got a lot out of the event.
So, I really wanna encourage you
to invest in yourself and your career growth, too.
There's no like surefire event
I can tell you about to go to or like course to buy
or whatever that is for sure gonna like 10 X your success,
that sort of thing.
But I think you can judge by yourself
by hearing from other people who have attended that event
or taken that course or whatever
and make an informed choice about where you spend your money
and what you're gonna invest in
and then just give it your all when you do invest in it.
I think it's really hard to succeed on your own
and I think you can always benefit
from talking to other people in your industry
and learning from what they have to say.
So, put yourself in a situation
where you can meet those people
and I'm sure it's gonna do you some good.
Alright, hope you enjoyed hearing about Epicurrence.
I am definitely, definitely gonna go back to another one.
I think they're doing about like two to three per year.
So, for sure, I will be at one in 2019,
I don't know where or when yet,
but I'm keeping my eyes open for it
because I think that going to one of these a year
is gonna be an amazing like reset for me
and like a moment to decompress,
check in and like get some more clarity
about which direction I'm heading in.
So, I'm excited for that.
I'm excited to have had the opportunity to attend one
and just, just really glad I went.
Thank you for watching.
If you've got any questions about Epicurrence,
about the event,
then please leave them down below in the comments
because I didn't write a script for this video,
so I don't know exactly what I covered and what I didn't.
There might be something glaring that I'm missing.
But, yeah, let me know what you wanna know
and I will answer them down there.
Give it a thumb's up if you enjoyed watching it
and I'll see you in the next video, bye.
(lively music)