Coaching & Mentoring with The Illustrator’s Guide
Coaching is a process of us working together to uncover issues you may be experiencing in your career, exploring ideas and solutions and identifying your next steps. Coaching can be an effective way of creating change, solving problems and uncovering goals.
What is this?
Many freelance illustrators don’t have a support structure to help them with their career. There are plenty of resources available for specific guidance on learning new skills or to receive a portfolio review, but very few focusing on the bigger picture (your career and development). I’m offering online sessions to help illustrators develop and do their job more effectively. The sessions are a blend of coaching and mentoring.
Coaching in this sense isn’t like a sports coach shouting instruction from the sidelines. My role as a coach is primarily to listen to the individual’s specific work-related challenges and ask them the right questions to help them find their own solutions. It’s about you finding your own way with my support, not about me telling you what to do.
Mentoring is more about my experience as an industry professional. While the primary goal is for you to think about your own solutions, I do have the experience and knowledge to be able to advise you on work-related issues when appropriate. I’m usually very free with my advice, but I may encourage you to offer solutions as a first step, which we can then discuss and explore before giving you my opinion. This can be a challenging process for some, but when you can find your own solutions to problems, you’ll be more confident in facing problems in the future.
Coaching is a process of us working together to uncover issues you may be experiencing in your career, exploring ideas and solutions and identifying your next steps. Coaching can be an effective way of creating change, solving problems and uncovering goals.
Sessions are confidential and each one will begin with a few minutes discussing the process, and to set boundaries for the conversation. I may take a firm approach when appropriate, but there is no judgement or expectation of the participants and no homework.
How could coaching help you?
These sessions are about whatever aspects of your illustration career you want to bring to the table. No two sessions are the same because every participant has different needs, goals or problems they want to discuss. A session will provide you with the space to talk about the challenges you’re facing, and we can explore possible solutions together.
Here are some things sessions have helped previous clients with:
- Lack of confidence
- Feeling stuck in a rut
- Reframing self-limiting beliefs (fear of failure, impostor syndrome)
- Struggling with motivation
- Helping to create goals
- Providing a space to think through problems
- Receiving honest and constructive feedback
- Challenging artists to push themselves
- Offering advice and information about the industry
- Assessing strengths and development areas
- Identifying new opportunities
What this isn’t
Coaching & mentoring sessions aren’t portfolio reviews. Although we may discuss your work, these sessions are intended to help you step back and look at the bigger picture rather than focusing on details. The sessions will only focus on work-related issues. If you’d like to book a portfolio review, you can do that here
Here are a few of the things previous clients have to say about their sessions:
“It gave me real clarity on where to take my work next.”
“I really enjoyed the session, it made me look introspectively at what I was doing for the first time in a while”
“The goals that you helped me put in place were solid, achievable and short-term that helped build toward a much larger career trajectory, so nothing overwhelming or far out of reach.”
“you confirmed everything I was thinking and gave me new areas to think about, which will help me grow as an illustrator.”
“you asked simple questions and gave me the space to answer fully and at length. Personally, I found this useful as it was almost like a therapy session, where you were guiding me through my own ideas and plans leading me to conclusions drawn by myself.”
“There is a lot of advice for illustrators on the internet, which is very helpful, but getting an answer or advice to your own specific problem is invaluable.”
“The initial nerves fell almost instantly as I was put at ease by a friendly voice and a listening ear. […] it came with a feeling that I wasn’t being judged, that I was being listened to and that what I was saying was being taken seriously.”
“When speaking to you I realized there were definitely some habits I’d taken on that were limiting my opportunity to grow”
“I really appreciated that you enquired about my boundaries before we started “is it ok if I’m direct with you?”. This felt super professional, and it made me feel safe.”
“It was exactly the ‘kick in the butt’ I needed. Your coaching questions were quite tough (in a good way)
If you’re ready to find out how a coaching session could help you, you can book using the links at the top of the page. If you can’t find a slot available, feel free to join the waiting list and I can contact you if slots become available. Feel free to Email Me with any questions.
I do charge for these sessions. There’s a 20% discount for AOI members on coaching.