{"id":10946,"date":"2018-04-20T19:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T23:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/arts-humanities-design-educational-information\/?p=10946"},"modified":"2024-01-30T13:25:46","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T18:25:46","slug":"semmys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/arts-humanities-design-educational-information\/semmys\/","title":{"rendered":"Keynote’s Advice at SEmmys: Embrace and Grow From Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 13th Annual SEmmys<\/a> took place at the St. Petersburg College\u00a0Seminole Campus Digitorium<\/a> on April 10. Students of the Digital Arts<\/a> and MIRA<\/a> programs, as well as high school students in Pinellas County, submitted projects in categories such as photography, digital arts, and videography. More than 100 SPC students and 34 Pinellas County School students and guests attended.<\/p>\n

Working Towards Success<\/h5>\n

Matt Kloskowski, also known as the Photoshop Guy, was the SEmmy’s keynote speaker. His website<\/a> offers Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photography assets for designers’ use. He specializes as a \u201ccoach\u201d in this area. His experience at Kelby Media Groups, where he worked for roughly 10 years as both an educator and a class recruiter, helped refine his skills and inspire his work.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/a><\/p>\n

In opening his presentation athe SEmmys, Kloskowski chose to share one of the most important things he noticed from his years working alongside artists prepping classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never saw the bad photos while they prepared. If that\u2019s what you\u2019re looking at, and you\u2019re just seeing success all day long, what\u2019s that mean for you? What\u2019s that mean for what you\u2019re doing?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For everyone, failure can be a daunting word. But,\u00a0 in Kloskowski\u2019s welcome to all SEmmys’ participants, he encouraged attendees to embrace failure as a step towards success. It forces people to be “human, normal, real, humble, understanding, patient, driven,\u201d and ultimately, \u201cto learn,” he said.<\/p>\n

He reinforced this by sharing a story where he posted all the bad photos he took on a trip, titled \u201cWhen a Death Valley Photography Shoot Goes Bad.\u201d It ended up being his most visited blog post that year. He believed it was because people could identify with his experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can they learn if they don\u2019t see you fail first, to see the process of how you build up to success?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Embracing the F Word<\/h3>\n

The idea of sharing your weakest work can be downright horrifying. An obsession with flawless portfolios and impressing potential employers conflicts with accepting failure.<\/p>\n

Kloskowski, however, emphasized the necessity of this process, particularly because of how it allows people to relate to one another.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThey love to know somebody else is having those problems too, because it makes us feel like I\u2019m not alone in this, I\u2019m not weird, I\u2019m not crazy, I have those problems and they have them too. And that\u2019s why sharing stuff like that is so important.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To best communicate his philosophy,\u00a0Kloskowski outlined five stages titled \u201cEmbracing the F Word.\u201d<\/p>\n