Make Your Mark Blog

Make Your Mark in fashion is in it’s final stages and our three fabulous teams of ethical fashion entrepreneurs are working to create new stand alone ranges for their respective mentor’s business. Miawi for Junky Styling, R.A.J.E for THTC and Berrie for Enamore will launch their collections in an exclusive catwalk show at The Hopsital Club on 16th September 2008 during London Fashion Week.

To find out more about the competiton and our finalist check out www.makeyourmarkinfashion.org

Hi, Shed here… Might I say how gorgeous you look today…

This month, I’ll prove to you that the process for turning your ideas into amazing adventures is wonderfully and devilishly simple. It goes something like this: you have an idea in your head, you take steps to make it happen - then… incredible opportunities arise:

All you have to do is START DOING SOMETHING NEW…

THE WORLD’S NEWEST CELEBRITIES - let’s see what you think…

This is a great example of how an idea can cause an adventure. Three years ago, I created a new range of sweets - and unknown to me, a packet of those sweets got sent to a guy in China called ‘Dominic’. He called me up, we became great friends and three years later - just recently - Dom flew me out to Beijing for a book launch for my new title, IDEAS MAN.

Years before I made contact with Dom, I’d been trying to release a new set of ‘trading cards’ for kids (the full exciting story is chronicled in my book). The range of characters is called ‘HELLEBRITIES‘, and here are a couple:

Even though the HELLEBRITIES trading cards never got the backing for a global launch, whilst I was in China I took the opportunity to see if I could turn some characters into 3D Figurines instead. What’s brilliant about China is that there are loads of talented people over there who can help with your idea (for a much lower price than here), and they’re even reachable through the internet (just Google ‘China Manufacturers’). Here’s what the sculptor produced:

If you’re a manufacturer or a retailer and you’d like to help make the HELLEBRITIES range the huge worldwide success it deserves to be, please get in touch through my personal site.

So that shows you how one idea (my range of sweets) can then create a huge adventure (a trip to Beijing) and also make another idea come to life (the HELLEBRITIES models). Pretty exciting!

And this is proof that…

***WHEN YOU START MAKING A NEW IDEA HAPPEN, YOU NEVER QUITE KNOW WHERE IT MAY TAKE YOU…***

All the best and here’s to your ideas!

Yours,

Shed

———————————————————————————————–

Shed’s bestselling, inspiring and amusing book IDEAS MAN is out now.

See more of his adventures and products on www.IdeasMan.co.uk

Read Shed’s inspiring story.

———————————————————————————————–

Make Your Mark has teamed up with live music promoters Curious Generation to offer aspiring young music promoters across the UK the chance of a lifetime. 

When Make Your Mark in the Music Business launched earlier this year we heard from young people who were passionate about boosting the live music scene in their local area but didn’t have the financial backing, contacts or support to go it alone. 

Curious Generation is a live music promotions company that has worked with some of the best breaking artists in today’s music industry (including Scouting for Girls, Dirty Pretty Things and The Guillemots).  They want to offer their experience and infrastructure to enterprising young people who love music, know their local music scene and want support to set up and run a regular, live music night in their home town or city.  

Did you know..?

The live music sector is the fastest growing part of the music industry yet there isn’t a single training course in the UK that provides specialist skills in the promotion of live music.  This means the live performance sector will face a shortage of up to 10,000 people by the year 2017 (Live Music Forum Findings & Recommendations 2007)

Paul Latham, President, UK Music and Venues at Live Nation, said: ”This is an exciting time to be involved in live music. With income streams dwindling from recording contracts there has never been more demand from artists to tour. Therein lies the conundrum for any aspiring, or indeed established, promoter; how to deliver the artists aspirations both technically and financially.

“Talent is not just what appears on the stage, there is also an art to understanding and developing the potential for those performers. I look forward to seeing the progress of those who take part in Make Your Mark in the Music Business.”

If you are aged 18-30 and think you have what it takes to be a live music promoter, visit www.makeyourmarkinmusic.org

As we turn the corner of a new era, we need new people to help us continue with our enterprise message - As the new HR manager I am excited to have some great opportunities available to continue the enterprise message through our people. We are looking for people ready for new challenges and passionate about what we do - whether you are a self confessed enterprise junkie or want to embark on an amazing new journey you might just be in with a chance - so who’s in?

Vanessa

Enterprise Junkie - and - Make Your Mark HR Manager

Last night I went to the launch of ‘Spare Room Start Up’ - a book from Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation which might be the refreshing business read we’ve all been waiting for. It’s easy to digest and has nice pictures (apparently a rather good one of her Dad on page 67…) and has some fab top tips and advice. One person in the book is Nula from Noolibird who sells fabrics and stamps for children’s bedrooms. I’m loving the Farmyard one myself. I hope the book inspires more people to set up business from home, its a lower risk way to do it and can be hugely rewarding.

Clippykit is teaming up with the Make Your Mark Club and we are inviting London girls to take ‘The London Clippykit Challenge’ aimed towards girls in year 9 and 10 (as Clippykit is quite girly – sorry boys!) are going to be asked to use a Clippykit bag to ‘Pocket the Problem’ and for you to come up with your own fab idea.

I am so excited about this competition, I love to see how my bags are customised. Each one always looks completely unique every time. We have never thought about using the bags as part of a challenge to raise money and awareness for a cause before. For more details take a look at www.makeyourmark.org.uk/pocket_the_problem

I can’t wait to see what the groups come up with. I hope all the schools involved will really use their imaginations to make the bags visually exciting to promote the issues.

Veronica Wadley the editor of the London Evening Standard is to be on the team of judges, along with myself (Calypso Rose) and Jude Sutcliffe from Make Your Mark.

There are going to amazing prizes of a Kodak EasyShare 10mega pixels digital camera and £100 to make an idea happen in your Make Your Mark Club for the winning team. If you go to a London school and think this is right up your street, please get in contact.

Calypso

Email to take part club@makeyourmark.org.uk

Channel 4’s FourDocs and Mediabox have joined forces for the second year running to offer an exclusive competition for disadvantaged 13-19 year olds to write, direct and produce their own short documentaries. Ten films will be made of which at least one will get a broadcast slot on Channel 4.

The competition launches on Tuesday, 6 May 2008 and aspiring filmmakers should visit www.channel4.com/mediabox to submit a 200-word proposal. The judging panel is looking for unique ideas that will translate well into a 3-5 minute film. The closing date for entries is Monday, 16 June 2008. Ten finalists will receive £500 to create their film and will be assigned a film industry mentor who will guide them through the film making process.

Last year’s winner, 16-year-old Georgina Studd from Greenwich, South London, is soon to be the youngest disabled person to have a documentary broadcast on Channel 4. Her documentary, Georgina Goes Out, follows Georgina, who has cerebral palsy, as she attempts to go out for the day during the summer holidays and was chosen as the clear winner by the judges including prolific documentary filmmakers Nick Broomfield and Molly Dineen.

Original ideas can come from all kinds of places. Whether you want to address environmental issues, start a social enterprise or make your community a better place, ideas have the power to change the way we all live.
Creative Partnerships recognise that young people often have the best ideas of all: the younger we are, the more likely we are to use imagination and creativity to understand the world. Creative Partnerships have a project to encourage more young people to have brilliant ideas: Ideas that can change the world is harnessing the creativity of young people to develop ideas to change the world for the world better.

The boldest, best, life-changing, big ides will benefit from creative and professional expertise to help young people develop them and take them to the next level.
It’s a big job to ask young people to do, but we know they’re up to it! Creative Partnerships have also developed a resource to support young people as they develop ideas: an inspiring Ideas Cookbook provides lots of food for thought to help young people and their teachers develop world-changing ideas.
So what’s it all about? Essentially it’s about enterprise – it’s about being daring, thinking big, solving problems, working with others and seizing opportunities. That’s why we’re encouraging Make Your Mark Clubs to use the Ideas Cookbook to develop their own enterprising ideas.
Any school in England can take part in Ideas that can change the world by visiting: www.ideasthatcan.com or by emailing changetheworld@creative-partnerships.com The closing date for schools to submit their ideas is: 16 June 2008.
Teenagers in Make Your Mark Clubs across the UK are already sharing amazing ideas – take a look at them on the club website: www.makeyourmarkclub.org

Check out dieselwall.com - they are looking for designs to go on huge buildings. The deadline for the huge Manchester wall (28 x 18m) is 18 May so there is plenty of time to think of some designs. The wall is huge and so is the opportunity. We might do one from Make Your Mark, maybe something around failure but it would be good to get lots of others submitted too. Any budding designers pls give us a shout! 

We held our first Make Your Mark Meet up event in London last Tuesday afternoon with over 100 of our campaign friends and partners (including lots of MYM Ambassadors, Connectors and those lovely people who run great events in Enterprise Week!). The event was the first of a series of Make Your Mark Meet ups around the country and was a great chance for us to see some familiar enterprise faces and meet some new ones too!

There were some great ideas unleashed for Enterprise Week 2008 in the three sessions on Global Entrepreneurship Week, Digital Media and building partnerships - as well as the fantastic ‘doughnut of chat’ aka Talkaoke in the Foyer and our Connect Me photo wall where we snapped all the guests and how they want to Make their Mark!

A big thank you to all those enterprising people who took part in the event and helped create such a great buzz!

( ps. Don’t just take our word for it! Check out more event photos here: http://www.makeyourmark.org.uk/news_and_features/galleries/72157604472500481)

• Gone With The Wind
• Top price tickets (usually £50 or £60)
• ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY!
• Saturday 12th April MATINEE at 2:30pm
• ONLY £25

Fiddle-dee-dee, those fabulous folk at Hit The Theatre are offering an exclusive discount to see Sir Trevor Nunn’s landmark new musical Gone With The Wind. Not only will you be sitting in the very best seats in the building, but you will be paying only a fraction of the normal ticket price!

The show stars Darius Danesh and Jill Paice, and brings together the creative team behind smash hits such as Les Miserables, Cats, Starlight Express and many others.

This one-off event is sure to be a huge success. Secure your tickets today by visiting www.hitthetheatre.co.uk/gwtw

What’s more, if you have a group of 6 or more students wanting to come to the show for this performance, call 0207 1939050 for more special offers!

Frankly, you WILL give a damn… (see what I did there)

Hello. My name is Shed.

I know that sounds a bit odd, but my parents called me that from an early age (it’s short for ‘Sheridan’).

Anyway…it’s great to be with you.

One of my huge passions is coming up with new ideas and then making them happen. You can see the sort of mischief and entrepreneurialism I get up to, on my personal site.

Right now though, my only focus is YOU. My aim is to make this blog incredibly useful (and hopefully also entertaining and interesting) for you. You can judge whether I succeed. . .

First off, I’m going to read your mind. So, prepare to be astonished.

Ok, good… hold still…it’s coming through.

The fact that you’re visiting the ‘Make Your Mark’ website tells me so much about you. First off, it tells me that you’re someone who wants to make things happen.

Secondly, you’re someone who searches for information on how to make those things happen. Already, these two facts about you mean that I know you’ve got all the talents needed to achieve success in any field you want, namely: you’ve got both the desire to succeed and also the intelligence to search for ways to make your success happen.

So that’s good news for starters, isn’t it!

In this series of blogs, I’m going to share with you some of my adventures in creativity and entrepreneurialism and give you my secrets of success. Hopefully you’ll find them both interesting an inspiring… If you enjoy them and find them useful, you can read more of my adventures and secrets for success in my latest book ‘Ideas Man’…

All the very best and I wish you great success…

yours,

Shed

SHED’S TEN QUICK SECRETS OF SUCCESS (PART 1: Secrets 1-5)

1- TO GET YOURSELF NOTICED, GO ABOVE AND BEYOND

For my first job in television, I wanted to make myself stand out amongst the thousands of applicants all equally able and willing to get their chance at working in one of the most diverse and upcoming production companies in the UK.

So, I sent my potential employers a pizza with the following message printed in the lid: “Wanted to give you a pizza my mind and say thanks for the interview…”.

Oh, how cheesy (ouch) is that! But it worked because the bosses noticed me. After I sent them scripts proving I was passionate about the job, they interviewed me and eventually hired me as a trainee.

So…research is key. Find out all you can about the job you are going for and the people who are ultimately responsible for making the decisions.

Then use your initiative to go above and beyond and make your application stand out.

2- FIND INSPIRING PEOPLE WHO SHARE YOUR DREAM TO WORK WITH

No matter how great and unique you are, it’s always better when you’re succeeding with someone else. We all need other to help fill in our skill gaps.

So it’s a good idea to always search for the best (and most knowledgeable people) in the field you’re hoping to succeed in and persuade them to work with you.

It’s also a good idea to share your goals with others by telling people (who you trust) about your aims.

Doing this will set your idea in motion, because when you’ve told someone you’re going to do something, you’ll want to prove to them you can.

And hopefully, they can also help you stay motivated. . .

3- DON’T JUST DREAM IT…DO IT

When you have an idea, the worst thing is to sit there and spend valuable time thinking about making it happen. So, stop thinking and start doing.

We all have creative ideas from time to time and the longer we sit and think about them the more we fill ourselves with self doubt and in the end stop doing it.

These days, with the internet at your fingertips, you are always so close to people who can help. As long as you start making your idea happen and then learn from the journey, you can’t go far wrong.

And remember, as Walt Disney said so well, “If You Can Dream It You Can Do It”.

4- PACKAGING IS KEY

One of the first novelty products I launched was the ‘Butt Plug’ – a bum shaped mould that goes on the back of an electrical plug.

Unfortunately, the packaging wasn’t quite right. It didn’t clearly tell the customer what the plastic bum was for.

Presentation is always key when you’re pitching anything – you must communicate quickly and professionally what your message is.

5- AIM TO FAIL

Try to re-train your mind and persuade yourself that when you try something new and than you fail, it’s a good thing.

It’s good…because, if you fail at something, you know you’re moving towards your goal.

All you then have to do is learn from those hiccups and power onwards and you’ll succeed.

(SECRETS 6-10 coming soon….)

All the very best in your endeavours…

Yours,

Shed

*****

To read more of Shed’s adventures in entrepreneurialism and find out the secrets of success, see Shed’s New Book ‘Ideas Man‘ and view his news and products on www.IdeasMan.co.uk.

Also, if you work in the Tea Bag industry, The Bottled Water Industry The Cheese Industry or would simply like to explore working with Shed on one of his new ideas, please contact him through www.IdeasMan.co.uk too.

*****

Read Shed’s inspiring story

A fabulous opportunity for 5 graduates to learn what it takes to work in a really innovative place. Here’s what they’ve got to say about it:

We’ll be taking on five shiny new graduates into our commercial team this year. You’ll spend the first three months with a personal coach being put through your paces learning sales skills. After that you’ll be given a a proper role in the team, managing seven of our customers. We’ll support you with great managers and lots of classroom training to sharpen your commercial skills. After 16 months on our grass roots programme you’ll be ready to accelerate towards becoming one of our future leaders in the UK, Europe or the world. Blooming marvellous.

Take a peek at http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/us/grassroots/

last week i attended a really great event - the world entrepreneurship summit, in central london.  it was the very first of its kind and i was pleased to be manning a make your mark / global entrepreneurship week stand.  i met a lot of great people from around the world - ethiopia, hungary, bulgaria, sierra leone, kenya, canada - who were all similarly enthusiastic about entrepreneurship and the social good it can do.

i have to admit that the highlight for me was hearing kevin spacey - yes, kevin spacey, the ACTOR - talk to us about social entrepreneurship and his work at the old vic theatre.  the old vic is a social enterprise (it doesn’t take gov’t subsidy and it delivers educational programmes) and kevin is the artistic director there.  the audience learned of a few key ways that the theatre ’nurtures talent, develops work and and grows audiences’ - from international creative exchanges to running workshops and masterclasses for young people in the uk.  to find out more, check out the old vic new voices webpage.

his speech was informative and informal, not to mention sweetened with impressions of former US president, bill clinton, and his late mentor, jack lemmon.  he spoke for a good 25 minutes, took a load of questions, and got a few standing ovations at the end.  a really inspiring guy, working on a great social enterprise. 

and for those who now need a fix - here’s a a link to the famous dinner scene in american beauty, one of my favourite moments in film… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp4ayx8Moc4  

(may contain strong language!)

 chris spavin 

Presenter Shivani Mair dedicated her two radio shows to enterprise during Enterprise Week 07. Listen here to two young entrepreneurs talk of the challenges they faced and how they turned their ideas into reality. Creative Careers Surgery is the radio show presented by one of the
UK’s top 20 young social entrepreneurs Shivani Mair on 101.8 WCR. FM. The show aims to empower young people into thinking realistically about exciting careers in the creative industries. Shivani is a great inspiration herself as a TV and radio presenter, voice over artist and events compere. She has also just been appointed to the new Commission for Youth Social Enterprise - a group of 20 of the
UK’s top young social entrepreneurs launched at the Treasury in Enterprise Week. Have a listen and get inspired!

Listen to interview 1 (MP3 - 20 MB)

Listen to interview 2 ( MP3 - 18MB)