Gina Rudan's Blog

Women's History Month Video Message

Personal Branding Message from Gina A. Rudan from Animare Productions Inc. on Vimeo.

You come First, your Creative Genius comes Second

This weekend I participated in the Florida Media Market Film Festival as both a speaker and a marketing adviser to young aspiring film makers and during my two days surrounded by creative purists, I realized there is a huge gap between the ability to pitch a project and the effective ability to pitch yourself as the creator of a project. A sad reality but a reality all the same.

Many of the pitches I heard, the trailers I watched and the discussions I listened to were fantastic feature films and documentaries but the creative parents of these projects, the story tellers themselves, were not as effective as they could be at positioning themselves. They were able to sell the hell out of their ideas but were neglectful at marketing themselves with the same zest.

Young filmmakers can talk you to death about their films but ask some of them about themselves, their motives and aspirations and they stumble along extremely unsure how to answer. I find this to be the sad case with many artists, painters, and with creatives in general, which raises the question, "why do so many creatives fear self promotion?"

The marketing, finance and sales side of film making is complicated and half the battle is convincing producers and distributors that you are worth the investment. This business principal (the power of personal branding) applies to all creatives. It doesn't matter whether you are a fashion designer, film maker, author and or painter. If you have a creative idea and are trying to close funding, distribution or a partnership for your dream to see the light of day, you better look at how you are positioning yourself first and foremost as the inventor. Many creatives believe their work will speak for itself and sometimes that is the case but in my experience as a marketer, business professionals invest in people who are creative and understand to some degree the business side of the creative process. 

The faster creatives realize and embrace this reality, the faster their genius will reach the marketplace. If you are reading this and understand the importance of leveraging the personal brand before the product and know a young aspirng artist, please take ownership of educating them from this business lens.

Creatives and business professional rarely play in the same sandbox and I think and know when they do magic happens. So creatives, reach out to the marketing/business "heads" in your life for advice and professionals don't ignore the creatives and begin to share the unspoken rules which exist and are rarely discussed. Bottom line is this, although creatives and professionals come from different "tribes" they can greatly add value to each other if they begin to understand each other's framework.

Marrying creativity with business from an authentic place is powerful and profitable but few get it right. My message this blog post is we need to begin to understand the language of creatives and creatives in order to share your genius you really need to learn the language of enterprise and must start to brand yourself first.

The Perfect Tuesday night in New York City

Most New Yorkers in their late thirties long for the nights where you could hop the train, head downtown and spend an authentic sweaty weekday evening on a dance floor, dreaming, dancing and celebrating life without a worry in the world. Some of my favorite raw and true “never fail me spots” were “Sticky Mikes Frog Bar,” located in the basement of Time Café and Soul Kitchen. Sixteen years later, you really have to search high and low for a truly unique, smart and soulful spot in NYC. And last week,  I had the pleasure of finding one – La Esquina.

I had left Miami for two days of fund in NYC in celebration of a very good friend’s 49th birthday. Last Tuesday, on his birthday, I enjoyed a multi-sensory evening of real Mexican food, controversial discourse, music and meaningful connections with new friends I had actually met for the first time during that magical night.

What  makes La Esquina so Provocative is it’s an exclusive creatives mostly restaurant.

La Esquina which means the Corner in Spanish is a private restaurant located in the basement of a Mexican store front. You have to be invited by one of the owners or someone on staff to gain access to this unique spot and its well worth the effort. (We were guests of one of the owners that evening). To get in you enter through an unmarked door and head down a flight of stairs through the kitchen to uncover the bar and the dining room which I truly believe to be one of the most unique spaces in NYC today.

Once the bouncers found our names on "the list" we actually had to squeeze through a fluorescent-lighted kitchen, before entering a cave like space with candels and wood floors. The ambiance is warm, sexy, welcoming and filled with creative energy. We arrived at 10 pm and the basement was packed with writers, artists, musicians and folk from around the globe out for a good exclusive time. One can not help to question whether this is elitism but as a marketer I really recognize that it works. Where else can you dine next to Japanese b-boys visiting NYC while also watching Babyface gracefully enter a bathroom.

After La Esquina we ventured to Gold Bar which also was fantastic but could not compare with the La Esquina.

Tuesday evenings will never be the same!

Thanks Gina, Ivan and Jessie for making it one amazing night.

3 Days of Genius Insigths from THE Conference on Marketing, Feb 4-6th 2008

Throughout the year, professionals all over the world travel to conferences in search of that perfect conference experience. For me this usually means: a mix of inspiration combined with cocktail receptions, a dash of new genius, interesting attendees, a hotel room with a water view and lots of free good eats. Although most conferences miss the mark with this perfect balance, last week’s conference on Marketing hosted by the Institute for International Research achieved that magical recipe for conference success.

In the spirit of sharing the insights gained I have decided to pass it forward and have listed below my top 10 “take aways” from the conference.

Enjoy the Lessons!

1. “Behave Boldly! Unleash Innovation through Inspiration and create a personal manifesto” -  Andy Stefanovich http://www.lookatmorestuff.com

2. Green tip: Visit http://www.freecycle.org/: It's a grassroots site which allows people to give and get stuff for free in their own towns. – Meg Garlinghouse, Director for Good, Yahoo!

3. When creating communities through online technologies be sure to remember users want to: show off, share, debate, learn and mobilize – Chris Barry, Sundance Channel  http://www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen

4. Best networking tip: “Go up to someone you do not know and ask “what is your passion?”  Networking is about building personal relationships. Share your story - great stories transport emotions. – Keith Ferrazzi, author of never eat alone http://ferrazzigreenlight.com/

5. Recommended reading tip : Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert recommended by Futurist, Andrew Zolli http://www.poptech.com

6. Patience is key to achieve true greatness. Embrace the cezzanian perspective. – Malcolm Gladwell author of Blink    http://gladwell.typepad.com

7. Create and maintain a portfolio of ideas and create the space for ideas to grow and breed over time and not over night. – Malcolm Gladwell,

8. It’s no longer about the branding. It’s more about design, innovation and creating new stories worth talking about. – Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com

9. Sleep is powerful! Being refreshed is key to achieving genius. - Arianna Huffington

10. Instead of viewing politics from the left or the right it should be viewed from the right and wrong. – Arianna Huffington http://huffingtonpost.com

Some of you may think some of these insights are common sense but as my mother used to say “ common sense is an uncommon gift.