Kei Maye: Comfort zones & Creative Champs
INTRODUCTION
Kei Maye is a Creative Consultant and Educator from London as well as the founder of the platform Creative Champs, in place to provide education, tools and resources to kickstart the careers of visual artists, designers and creative business owners.
Her experience is multi-disciplinary within the creative industries, ranging from freelancing to licensing and art-based product selling.
This interview took place over video call in January 2021.
What do you love most about being self-employed?
I love the freedom. The fact I have complete autonomy over how my day will work out. I get to choose when I wake up, when I work, how I work and don’t have anybody hawking over my shoulder, micro-analysing everything I do instead of letting me get on with my job.
We often have to endure jobs we don’t love and you’ve had some pretty terrible experiences in the past, but do you think this helps us to discover what we really want to do in life?
I guess it can do. I’ve found the biggest lessons have come from some of my worst experiences. My terrible jobs didn’t necessarily help me decide what I wanted to do, but they prompted me to go in search of it.
“My terrible jobs didn’t necessarily help me decide what I wanted to do, but they prompted me to go in search of it.”
How do you create a working environment that you’re comfortable and productive in - especially when surrounded by distractions at home?
I dress comfortably, first and foremost. I know a lot of people like to get dressed up as if they’re going out to perk themselves up and inject energy but I’m the opposite. I prefer to sit in my joggers, house clothes or pyjamas – sometimes with a hot water bottle. In my workspace with the door closed is how I work best.
What does a successful day look like for you?
Making it through in one piece. Remembering to eat at least 3x a day, managing to get out of bed before 12pm and checking something off my list.
Every episode of Creative Champs is around 20 mins long and feels like an honest, open conversation with the listener. What drew you to this format?
I kept the episodes short and sweet as I want to keep listeners engaged and not bore them with endless waffle. After spending some years working in education, I’ve learned that presenting things in small chunks is a great way to help others retain what’s been said.
On a personal level, it’s also a format I can commit to on a weekly basis. Had I opted to make the podcast episodes longer, I would have struggled to stick to a weekly posting schedule for sure.
What value did you get from your degree in graphic design and what would you call on universities to teach more of?
I met some amazing people on my course, a couple of whom I’m still in touch with over 10 years later. I didn’t enjoy my uni experience at all – I left feeling completely unprepared for life as a freelancer. Didn’t have the best relationship with the lecturers either, felt no connection to them. However, if I could go back in time and do it all again – I would. If it weren’t for my lived experiences and adversities throughout university, I may not have been triggered to create something like Creative Champs.
“If it weren’t for my lived experiences and adversities throughout university, I may not have been triggered to create something like Creative Champs.”
As a platform that educates, and having been a teacher yourself, what are your views on the lack of POC in teaching roles, especially in the arts?
There aren’t enough black nor POC teachers.
As a self-professed introvert, you told us that public speaking didn’t always come naturally to you. Do you mind sharing why and how you’ve overcome this?
Overcoming my discomfort with public speaking was mostly made possible through my work in the education sector. Working in a classroom required me to step out of my comfort zone as there were times I had to keep 30 human beings engaged throughout the duration of an entire lesson. I had to learn about projection and ways to effectively communicate to ensure they were receiving an enriching learning experience.
My short stint as an art teacher really helped me to overcome some of my biggest worries.
“My short stint as an art teacher really helped me to overcome some of my biggest worries.”
What are your top tips for anyone that feels guilty about charging for their creative work or advice?
My top tips would be to tune in to the Creative Champs podcast! This is an extremely loaded topic that I’ve based a lot of content on across the Creative Champs Instagram page and the Podcast, combing through these barriers in more depth.
At the end of the day, creative work is work. You should be paid to work. You are positively contributing to peoples lives, you are inspiring others, you are creating unique pieces of work, you are solving problems – you need to be compensated for this.
The Creative Champs Podcast - hosted by Kei Maye
What do you have in store for Creative Champs in 2021?
Brand new website to enable the platform to become the e-learning space it was intended to be! Connecting with more creators, building on resources and continuing to try and make things easier for artists and designers across the globe.
Follow Kei
If you’d like to reach out to Kei, drop her an email on: hi@creativechamps.co
