HOW I LANDED A WHOLE PAGE IN UPPERCASE MAGAZINE

Uppercase Magazine, is a magazine for the curiously creative, filled with typeface, textiles, paper, art, surface pattern, vintage ephemera and general loveliness. Available by subscription or in art and design book stores internationally.

I was already a big fan of Uppercase before being published in the magazine, so I guess that was the first step to getting on the pages.

Many of you know that I took part in Marie Forleo's B School this Spring, something that took me two years to pluck up the courage to apply for (hello self-doubt). B School is a two month business course for entrepreneurs who want to grow their business from the heart. In one of the units we were invited to ask ourselves, 'How would you behave if you were the best in the world at what you do?' The activities that followed involved choosing three people we admire and who we want to align ourselves with, shoulder to shoulder.

I knew immediately that one of my people would be Janine Vangool, editor extraordinaire, who self-publishes Uppercase Magazine every quarter as well as other books and publications. She is a powerhouse in the design magazine world and I wanted a bit of it!

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The activity went on to ask students to research everything about the people they chose. Read their latest blog post, find out which books they'd written, what they like/ dislike, follow their social media channels and reach out in some way. Initially I wasn't feeling so bold, so my first reach-out was to subscribe to the newsletter. (Lame, I know!)

Then, during the research period, I discovered that Janine was also a B Schooler...I saw it as a sign. And then when I saw a 'Submissions' tab, I clicked to see that she wanted people to write about 'Perfectly Imperfect', and the submission was in a week's time. At this point, I asked myself if I wanted this enough to write the article and reshoot the photos using my DSLR camera for the quality and size they needed for print with only a week to go. The answer was of course, yes. The stars were too aligned to ignore it.

After clicking the submit button, I have to admit that I felt slightly nauseous. But what I knew in my heart is if you don't try you are 100% sure to fail, not a single chance of success.

A few weeks later with continued Uppercase radio silence, I assumed my submission had been unsuccessful. Surprisingly, I wasn't that disappointed, I just chalked it up to experience and was proud to have put myself out there. In my eyes I'd already been successful. Taking the steps and not fearing failure was the drive and the win. Who knew?

The icing on the cake was when the congratulations email arrived in my inbox, then when the magazine itself arrived in my post box. Reading the submissions and articles from the amazing Uppercase community that Janine has built was inspirational, and with Biku nestled among those beautiful pages, I quietly thanked Marie.

Links:
Marie Forleo
Marie Forleo's B School
Uppercase Magazine

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