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Hello ABSPD community! We were so impressed with your gorgeous testimonials from our last ‘Inspiring Quotations’ competition that we have decided to run it for the second time! This is an exciting design challenge for students and alumni of the e-course as well as a chance to practice your typography skills!

The Challenge

We would love for you to create your very own beautiful typography, testimonial design! The winning designer will be given a free place on the e-course Module of their choice! (This includes 1, 2, 3 & the brand new Module 4!). Below you can find the competition requirements:

(A great example from the previous competition)

• Create an inspirational typographic design in your own style and media (this can be hand-drawn or created with different fonts)
• The quote should include your own testimonial on how you have found a Module or the e-course as a whole, for example: “Maybe this course should come with a health warning as it is so addictive!”
• Please supply a 550 pixels wide, ‘save for web’ jpg & send to [email protected] with your full name, website and social media links
• Deadline: Midnight (GMT) Wednesday 5th March
• You will also need to share your design on social media. This can be on our Facebook page or tweet to@MakeitinDesign or @SurfacePatternD. Use hashtags #makeitindesign, #surfacepatternecourse or #ABSPD

See below for inspiration from our previous submissions and some of my own new designs! The winner will be announced on Friday 7th March along with a supporting showcase on the Make It In Design blog the week after.

Good luck Beth and Rachael x

 

In the past year alone we have sold over $1 million worth of online courses and helped change the lives of thousands of creative women in 50+ countries across the world. For the first time ever we are opening our doors to share with you our secrets to creating an online course that sells, and sells, and sells. 

Want to learn how to package your expertise into a profitable virtual programme – reaching participants + clients in every time zone, 24/7? If you take B-School with Do What You Love, we’ll show you how.

If you haven’t heard of Marie Forleo’s B-School you will be soon, as Marie is the queen of online marketing (as you’d expect from the person spearheading the world’s most successful online marketing course). But the reason you are hearing about it from us is that we want to invite you to take it along with Do What You Love. Here’s why…

Just four years ago I didn’t know what a blog was. In 2012 I was a Finalist in the Digital Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, in recognition of our acclaimed online courses. In the short time since we launched just three years ago, we have helped change the lives of thousands of creative women in 50+ countries across the world.

Selling over $1 million worth of online courses in the past year alone has allowed me and my husband to do what we love every single day, supporting our family and other people’s dreams in the process. And although people come back again and again because we take enormous care with the quality of our courses, I also attribute no small part of that explosive success to what I learned in B-School.

B-School is a brilliantly produced, highly professional and incredibly informative online marketing education, which works. If you want to take your business to the next level and reach your ideal customers all over the world, this course could be just what you need.

I can vouch for it because it worked for me.

As a proud affiliate of B-School we are offering a special package to help you build on your B-School experience. Having taken it myself, I know that many people come out of it with a grand plan to launch their own online course, as they realise that it can be both powerful and lucrative, allowing them to work with people all over the world without leaving their desk. The problem is, they don’t know how to do it. Fear of technology, perceived lack of resources, writer’s block or a host of other reasons holds them back from sharing their genius with people all over the world, and getting paid well to do so. But if you take B-School with us, we will share our secrets to building an online course which makes a difference, and makes you profit you can be proud of. This is literally priceless, because it is not on general sale.

Here at Do What You Love we have worked with outstanding partners to create some of the most innovative online courses on the market, helping thousands of people pursue their dreams. We can’t tell you how good it feels to know that they are literally changing people’s lives each and every day. If you take B-School with us we will give you the tools to go out and do that for yourself. What could be better than that?

Here’s what you get in the Do What You Love B-School bonus package:

*Click here for the small print

Please note that in order to benefit from this bundle you need to click on THIS REGISTRATION LINK before you make your purchase.

So if you are ready to step into a more flexible, lucrative way of working and sharing your knowledge and expertise with the world, take B-School with Do What You Love.  We promise you’ll never look back.

Beth and the team

Over the last few weeks we have been revealing the companies that are participating in our Live Briefs for Module 4 of ‘The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design (the e-course)’. Module 4 is an advanced seven week course in which you will learn everything you need to know about building your professional portfolio as a surface pattern designer. We have poured everything into this and it is going to be awesome. Below is a round-up of the truly amazing companies that we have announced as part of Module 4.

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As the sky over Sochi burst into life with fireworks to mark the opening of the 2014 Winter Olympics on Friday, I was transported back to the eve of the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. As I stood there in the stadium looking up at the awesome pyrotechnics, I had to pinch myself that I was actually being paid to be there, providing language support for the British Bobsleigh Team, having somehow managed to blag a month off university.

While there I had to interpret in all sorts of situations – from getting one of the bobsleighs resprayed after someone put the wrong sticker on it, to lessons in noodle making for the coaching staff; from scoring free ski slope access for the administrators to lunch with Princess Anne. And the craziest part of it all was my Japanese wasn’t actually all that good. I was only in the third year of my studies, so looking back I’m amazed how I had the guts to take on the job!

But that’s the point. I did the very best I could with what I had at my disposal. It wasn’t perfect, but the fact is even then I spoke Japanese better than any of the team, so my skills, however limited, were of use to them. It is so easy to get caught up with being ‘perfect’, and never actually taking action because we are always wanting to do a little more preparation, but sometimes you just have to go for it. By all means learn as you go along, but don’t wait until you know everything because that day will never come.

In the end the British Bobsleigh Team were the only Brits to get a medal that year, so you can imagine the party we had once the event was over!

How did I get the job in the first place? I asked. Simple as that. I wrote a good old snail mail letter to the General Secretary of the British Olympic Association offering my services. I never actually thought he’d say yes, but I am so glad he did. And if the job at the 1998 Winter Olympics wasn’t cool enough, it led to a whole host of jobs at some of the most incredible sports events in the world, including the World Games, Summer Olympics, FIFA World Cup, World Athletics Championships and more, where I worked alongside some of the world’s top athletes and made some amazing friends along the way. It is all connected.

So whether or not you like sport, take a moment to watch some of the Winter Olympics over the next couple of weeks and find a way for it to inspire you. Whether it is with the courage to try a new sport, the curiosity to find out about a new country, or even just to reflect on my little story and decide to ‘just ask about that job’ and see what happens. It might just work out!

Beth and the team

 

Want to create your own online course that sells?

Every week we receive emails from people asking us to help them develop an online course which allows them to share their unique expertise with the world whilst making money doing what they love. For the first time we have decided to put together a special masterclass revealing our secrets to creating an online course that sells. We are offering this exclusively as part of our special package for anyone signing up to Marie Forleo’s brilliant B-School online marketing program through Do What You Love.

As a proud affiliate of this fantastic program (which we believe in because we have taken it and seen the results), we are offering a special package to help you build on your B-School experience:

• VIP pass to the Bundle Your Brilliance Masterclass – a private LIVE online workshop revealing the secrets to creating an e-course that sells, taught by someone who has sold over $1 million worth of online courses (that will be us!)
• Access to a private Facebook group of others just like you, for extra support throughout the course and beyond
• A FREE place on the Do What You Love e-course, to help you discover and pursue your true passion (course begins April 28)
• PLUS the chance to win a series of 6 Mentoring Sessions with e-course producer Beth Kempton to help you get your course up and running and making you profits you can be proud of!

Sound good? Click here for more details!

“A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what a ship was designed for.” Anonymous

Being brave in all the parts of our lives, even when it doesn’t really matter, can help us be brave when it does really matter. This month on the blog we are talking about being brave – one of our very favourite topics. Bravery takes many forms – from facing childhood fears to taking on physical challenges, from speaking your truth to putting yourself out in the world with your art, from trying something new to quitting something old, from taking a stand to choosing the life you were meant to live.

To explore the meaning of being more brave with your creativity, we had a chat with top art agent Lilla Rogers, who has inspired brave creativity in thousands of artists worldwide. We found it fascinating and wanted to share it with you…

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Thanks to all who entered our giveaway. We are excited to announce that the winner of the Experimental Art e-course is…

Amy McGrath 

Congratulations! Amelia Critchlow will be in touch with details of how to access the course. We hope you enjoy it!

I have the great pleasure of introducing you to a good friend of ours who we met whilst travelling in Japan last year. Asher is another example of someone who has reassessed what he wanted from life and has started out on his own to satisfy those deep yearnings that just don’t go away otherwise. 

My name is Asher Freeman and I am a jewellery designer/maker from New Zealand.  I have been in the jewellery industry for about 10 years and have just made the big move in starting my own company, Freeman Jewellery Design. I believe strongly in being ethical on all levels – from the integrity of the design and make of the piece, to the materials used being ethically supplied.

1. How are you leading a life ‘doing what you love’?

By being honest to my inspirations, ideals and dreams.

2. What did you do before this?

Before starting Freeman Jewellery Design, I worked for a high market boutique jewellery store in Auckland, New Zealand, for about 7 years. It was the perfect introduction and training ground for getting deeper into jewellery design and make after completing a 3 year Diploma with High Distinction at The Peter Minturn Goldsmith School.

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We are committed to giving you the best possible grounding as a professional surface pattern designer, and for this reason we have invested significantly in order to be able to offer our Module 4 students 90 days’ free access to industry leading trend forecasting website Stylesight! As the industry leader, Stylesight offers “visionary content and compelling technology for style, fashion and design professionals”. We met the team at the Indigo trade show in Paris, and were blown away by what the site offers.

Here is a bit more info on what is in store…

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Not many people know this, but I used to host my own TV show in Japan. It was called ‘Beth Nicholls and Friends’ – cheesy or what? In it I interviewed foreigners living in Japan about their life in that very different culture. It was a huge amount of fun, and a brilliant experience. It was hardly prime time TV, although I did once get recognised by a monk in a clifftop temple. Who knew they had cable up mountains?

Anyway, the other day I was thinking about the unusual opportunity I had to present the TV show, and tried to pin down the exact decision that had led to it. I realised that it was back in school, when I had chosen to study Japanese for my degree. And that had been no ordinary decision.

Back then I was one of those people who just loved school – a straight A student studying A levels in very academic subjects, aiming for Oxbridge and a career in accountancy. But something happened the summer I turned 17, and everything changed (that’s a story for another day).

The upshot was I decided to use my time at university for a big adventure, and was determined to find a course that sent me somewhere exotic for a year. At that time, if you hadn’t studied a language at A Level (high school equivalent), you could not take languages at college. The only exceptions to this rule were Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Arabic. So with no knowledge of any of them, I used the children’s counting rhyme ‘Eeny Meeny Miny Moe’ to choose Japanese. Simple as that. Pure chance. And that ‘decision’ has shaped every step of my life ever since.

The point is that every decision is a chance for a new beginning. And it is never too late to make a new decision. This week, when faced with a decision, however big or small, think of it as a chance for a new beginning and see how this influences the decision you make – or even be bold and leave that decision to chance!

Have a great week,

Beth and team

We can train, we can strive to better ourselves and we can even achieve success but unless we listen to our inner self we will never truly be ‘doing what we love’. Today’s interview will inspire you to look out for those moments of epiphany and listen to your heart.

Donal Doherty is a destination-wedding photographer who calls Northern Ireland home. He photographs stunning weddings in amazing locations with people who rock and also inspires other photographers to create a business and life they love!

1. How are you leading a life ‘doing what you love’?

I am blessed as I spend my time capturing life and love.

Shooting the weddings of incredible people, not only in the most stunning locations in Ireland and the UK, but around the globe.

At home in Londonderry I get an insight into families full of love and create something for them that will last forever. I also have the opportunity to share my story and strategies to help other photographers and creatives by speaking at conventions around the world and through my writing for Photo Professional Magazine. Each year the balance I have gets better and I am supported by an amazing family, friends, peers and my girlfriend, Margaret.

Image by Peter Thomas Photography

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