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Happy Friyay Dotties!
I am a serial tab opener - no matter what I do, I seem to have two browsers with 15+ tabs open every day of the week and a lot of those tabs at the end of the day are about education. Right now it's how to content fill in Photoshop, it's The Rising Tide Summit, a book I want to read on Amazon about business and even a course I want to take online.
The one thing I have learnt over ten years of working on Polka Dot Bride is that the need for education is constant and it's all completely on me. It's one of those annoying parts about business - we are so consumed by the day to day grind that we can so often forget to look up and learn.
And so, that is what I am incredibly conscious of this year. I remember, and you will too if you have been a long-term Inner Circle member, that a few years ago I took an online styling course and then an online auto to manual camera course. Both were incredible for me - not only because personally, they made me more aware of different things, but because they also helped me to understand my job better. I understood why things looked the way they did and I was more aware of how darn hard your jobs are.I took away learnings that I could implement in my own day to day operations and life.
So take a minute, if you could learn anything what would it be? As a cake designer would you want to learn a brand new technique? As a photographer, would you want to improve one facet of your work? Could you as a wedding professional learn more about things like SEO and Facebook ads? Personally for me, there are a bunch of digital aspects I want to learn more about, but I also want to learn calligraphy (er, that's been on my to-do list for four years now...) learn to play my ukulele and I definitely want to get better with my camera so I'm prepared for my day to day photo opportunities.
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So are you curious to learn something new? Here are my favourite ways!
1. Find courses
Photography school The Define School taught me how to go from auto to manual. but they also have brilliant courses on things like SEO, posing and even Instagram. I also love Creative Live for free education streams which are available for purchase. For broader, non-wedding based subjects - platforms like Envato , Khan Academy and Coursera offer hundreds, if not thousands of free courses. Keep an eye out - more and more wedding pros are offering courses and they'll always let you know!
2. Sign up for conferences & webinars
The new big thing is online conferences and there are so many of them around. They might have free webinars, rotating conferences with a multitude of speakers or just Facebook lives. So many of these are fabulous for learning and rarely cost much (they can lead to sales funnels for the speakers) but I have picked up so many handy hints and tips without leaving my desk!
3. Read more
Reading more was a goal of mine this year and somehow this month I found my trick for making it happen and I am loving it. While I have lots of light chick literature in my repertoire, I also love heavier business tomes that are a little more about my day to day life. I love reading about different business ideas and concepts and I love even more when I can take those and implement them into my daily life. Visit your local library for freebies and start to read books that challenge your own beliefs and ideals.
4. Join groups
I have been getting a little more curated with my Facebook groups. I have no time for negativity so I have made sure I am only part of groups where I find there is a wonderful sense of community that exists without bringing others down. There are a few brilliant SEO groups where the leaders do great Facebook lives and the community asks and answers questions, and a few wedding communities built solely on building others up - I am always searching for information and reading and garner so much from them.
5. Ask and Exchange
Maybe you have a photographer friend who would love to learn a little about styling, maybe you'd love to learn a little about photography - why not connect and exchange knowledge together? Maybe you have a friend who is experienced in growing a business and consults on that for a fee, maybe you have another who you have always admired for their design work - ask your colleagues!
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I would love to know <<First Name>>, if you believe in the value of continuous education and where you have found the best place to be to find it?
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Check out all our weekly picks on one place on the Polka Dot Bride Spotify playlist.
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Cloud Control
Indie-outfit CC 100% nail the perfect mix of heartfelt alt-pop rock here, front man Alister Wright's voice is particularly compelling and is perfectly complemented by Heidi Lenffer's backing vocals. It's slightly high-pitched, and innocent matched with grungey-crunching guitars that give it a really lovely tension.
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Odd Mob
Maxi Jazz from the UK unit Faithless once prophesied in their infamous track God Is A DJ "this is my church, this is where I heal my hurts", and I believe this remains true and is particularly applicable to house music that is completely dedicated to uplift. There is still no cheaper therapy than music that is designed than music and this
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The Andrews Sisters
Hello and welcome to how mainstream chart toppers sounded like in 1945! I hate to be that "back in my day" type... (yet, my day was never 1945 so I get a pass here!) but I wish our modern day hits would do an about turn and sound like brilliant hokey-calypso songs like this. Good luck not getting this stuck in your head for days, it's the most catchy perfect ditty you may've never ever heard.
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Yeo Feat. Asta
The most oddly genius moment of this track is Yeo's almost spoken-word vocals that offset Asta. I felt really on the fence when I first heard this and thought it was a bit bland but it's grown on me after a few listens. Give it more than one try!
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