Being Geek Chic is a blog for stylish geeks, sophisticated nerds and people who enjoy the musings of a complete dork. Join us as we dream of driving the TARDIS, cuddle with our eBooks and test out an iPad sleeve. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi and a team of brilliant lady nerds. Meet the team.
“Carly Ayres is a person, living and working in Brooklyn, New York.” She specializes in creating, consuming, curating, and distributing content at CreativeMornings, a breakfast lecture series on creativity, branding, and just general living. We’ll let her tell you more about her work there in just a bit.
Ayres is also a regular contributor over at Core77, an industrial design blog for professionals and enthusiasts alike. In her free time, Ayres is “a voracious reader, pie baker, and aspiring indoor-plant horticulturist.”
She tweets: @carlyayres, blogs: over here, Instagrams: carlyayres, and chats with Being Geek Chic…
Q: How did you discover your passion?
A: It was more of a slow burn. There wasn’t an ‘ah-ha’ moment. I was a senior majoring in Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) when I finally came to terms with the fact that I didn’t want to pursue a career in product design. After spending four years welding metal and carving wood, I realized that my favorite part of product design was the initial process‚ speaking with users, digging into their needs, and synthesizing those experiences.
I took a step back from my work and saw that I had already been doing the work I cared about, molding the curriculum to satisfy the projects that I wanted to be doing. I was doing independent studies that involved lots of research, interviewing and speaking with people, and telling stories, but that didn’t result in physical, functional products. One of these projects was why-we-make, which cataloged the stories of RISD alumni and their own circuitous paths to creative fulfillment.
That project made me take another look at my own path to what I was doing and what I wanted to be doing moving forward. That summer, I turned down an internship in product design to work for CreativeMornings, a lecture series for creative communities, and joined them full time after I graduated.
At CreativeMornings, I head up all things content as Chief Content Officer, overseeing the consumption, creation, and distribution of content in all of its myriad forms across its 85+ chapters around the world. From blog posts to press releases, I look for ways to tell the stories of our community.
Q: Where do you find your inspiration in life?
A: Everything comes back to people. With CreativeMornings, the stories are about people and the audience is people. The stories of these people, the steps they take, and what that leads to always excites me and I love talking to them and connecting those dots.
I recently highlighted the work of Vasco Mourao, who is an amazingly talented illustrator in addition to organizing the CreativeMornings chapter in Barcelona. In the interview, he shares a quote that really resonates with me: “If you fail at your work, it is not failure at all, but if you fail at your relationships, that’s really failure.”
Everything comes down to the people you meet and the relationships you have with them. With Vasco’s story, I was excited to hear that quote because it resonated with the work I am doing and kept me thinking long after the interview was over. My hope in sharing these stories is that others will have similar experiences, taking away bits and pieces and incorporating them into their own lives in an impactful way.
Q: What makes a good storyteller?
A: Curiosity. I always remember a story my dad told me from his dating days when he was complaining to a friend about how a girl he had met was ‘so boring.’ His friend told him that it wasn’t the girl who was boring, but that the fault was on my father who failed to discover what was interesting about her.
I think being genuinely interested in what someone is saying and asking thoughtful questions are the most valuable traits to making a good storyteller. ‘Non-judgmental listening’ is term I picked up from culture analyst Sharon Ann Lee, who describes it as the way Jane Goodall worked with the apes, sitting and observing, reserving all judgement.
Q: If you could take any fictional character out for a drink, whom would you choose and what would you drink?
This is a hard question. I just finished Meg Wolitzer’s “The Interestings,” so am wishing I could grab a drink with Jules Jacobson and have a deep conversation on life and growing up, which is something I think a lot about these days.
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: Speaking of growing up.. Once you get those braces off, things are going to start looking way up for you. You don’t know it yet because you really don’t know a lot at this point. You can’t know what you don’t know, but if you know that you don’t know anything, at least you’ll know something.
When you know better, you do better, so start doing as many things as possible and experiencing as many things as you can because the quickest way to discovering what you do like is by doing all the things you don’t like first.
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but straight lines are boring, so make sure you do everything the long, hard, stupid way and carve for yourself an expansive winding route. And while you are on that long, winding, circuitous path, stop judging yourself and love everything, unabashedly.
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, history scholar, tea drinker, fashion devotee, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
Lizbeth Wawrzonek is a Lady Geek powerhouse creating articulate branding, smart content, soulful marketing, and compelling storytelling. She’s a freelancing strategist, advisor, and number one fan of small businesses and organizations and is taking the Twin Cities by storm. What makes her different from other shining freelancers? Wawrzonek harnesses “a unique blend of marketing expertise, business acumen and digital technology savvy, with roots in developing community relationships.”
We sat down with Wawrzonek to talk about her career accomplishments, passions, advice for rising freelancers, and teenage wisdom. Read on!
Q: How did you discover your passion?
A: I started out doing marketing and PR in very grassroots ways - through planning and promoting arts events and programs in my neighborhood of Stevens Square near downtown Minneapolis. Soon after that I worked as Events & Outreach Coordinator for Peace Coffee. Through these experiences I realized the power of connecting to people through word-of-mouth around shared areas of interest, and became convinced of the impact of voting with your dollar. It was then that I discovered the importance of helping people make informed decisions through intentional, meaningful communications tactics, which was a constant throughout my experiences working with much bigger brands at advertising agencies like Colle + McVoy and Zeus Jones.
Q: You help brands tell their story. What makes you a good storyteller?
A: I am fed by the inspiration of those people who have found a way to make a sustainable endeavor out of their vision to enhance the world. Once I dig into, absorb and understand how and why people have come to that vision, telling the story feels very natural and easy.
Q: What advice would you give fellow lady geeks who are considering harnessing their skills, becoming their own boss, and launching a freelance company?
A: Get clear with yourself about what feeds you and what your strengths and weaknesses are. Think creatively about people you know and how you can support each other’s work. Don’t overlook the importance of channeling the experiences you’ve had working for and with others as the foundation for your own solo endeavors. Begin and end each day by taking stock of what you are grateful for.
Q: You can choose one superpower. What is it?
A: The ability to be completely present in the moment, never defined by what’s happened in the past and never living for expectations of the future.
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: Every time in your life you start hearing a tiny voice getting louder and louder saying ‘Thats a really good idea, you should DO that,’ gol’ durnit, LISTEN! Write it down. Come back to it the next day. Write about it some more. Share it with someone you trust and ask how they would support you if you did it. Consider steps you would take in a month to pursue it and write your future self a note to come back to in a year to reconsider it. Never doubt that you can make it happen. And never think you’re too young or too old to make it happen.
That and to ask more questions and worry less about having the answers.
Photo by Leslie Plesser
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, history scholar, tea drinker, fashion devotee, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
I hate to make big, bold predictions… BUT I’m going to make one anyway:
Cheap equipment and technology are going to COMPLETELY change the way we tell stories on the web this year.
Why do I say that? There’s an insurgence of affordable technology hitting the market this year. Whether it’s the new Kindle or the new products from Wacom, affordable technology seems to be the new theme in many markets. Here’s the kicker though, it’s often difficult for consumers to translate that into our work. However, I’ve ID’d two new products that I’m confident will make video storytelling and multimedia storytelling on the web more affordable, more high impact and more beautiful.
First, Cinetic’s Cineskates.
This incredible little device is only $275 on Kickstarter right now if you invest. Why is this so great? Video production has become more attainable for small newsrooms, blogs and businesses because of affordable cameras and DSLR video quality have become so ubiquitous in the market. However, the auxiliary equipment and tools have not plummeted in price in the same way. That’s where this incredible new rig comes into play. I’ve already dreamed up several ways that you could use this in your home for cooking demos or DIY tutorials and produce the same results that major production houses get.
The second product I’m really jazzed about? The Wacom Inkling.
What are the possibilities here? Well, think smoother, more realistic cartoons and GIFs on Tumblr for starters! Imagine the fun savvy artists will have. However, the business applications are pretty great too. Motion graphics that have that “home-spun” feel will actually have the hand-drawn quality that graphic designers are often trying to imitate, but can’t quite pull off. Plus, it will hit the market in Mid-October for only $199.
So the big question is, who will put these awesome tools to use first to wow us all?
