Her Story
About Alece
I've been doing graphic facilitation work for 16 years, and it's been an incredibly exciting journey. My work takes me all over - I've traveled throughout the United States and internationally to Dubai, Milan, and Costa Rica for different types of events. I work with such a diverse range of clients, from small nonprofits doing grassroots work for marginalized communities to high-tech companies like AWS in Seattle. Sometimes I'm at large conferences, other times I'm in intimate brainstorming sessions. What makes this work so fascinating is that I'm in these meetings where people are making important decisions, and I get to be right there in the middle of it, learning such interesting and important things. About 75% of my work is live event illustration, but I also do digital illustration work - vision maps and journey maps where I collaborate with clients, sending sketches back and forth until we land on an image that really explains their vision. I finish these illustrations on my computer, bringing in my background in digital illustration and advertising. Before this career, I worked in advertising, and I've been able to bring that skill set into my current work. The combination of listening, synthesizing, and drawing in real-time makes every project unique and keeps me constantly learning.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Alece
01What do you attribute your success to?
I'm just a high achiever, and I don't mind starting from the beginning and learning something new. I have a lot of patience for that. I'm willing to be really awful at something if I really want to do it - I think I was pretty terrible at graphic facilitation the first 3 years as I was just practicing, but I was doing well and clients liked the work, even though it wasn't the standard I would have for myself. I'm willing to move with a beginner's mind and just take the time it needs to really hone a skill well. I just keep working at it until I'm competent, and then I keep working some more. I think I just have that kind of drive, which you have to have if you're going to be an entrepreneur or freelancer anyway. It's a mentality of 'I'm not good at this yet' - the yet is important. I'll get there. I also had to let go of perfectionism, which was really hard for me at first. When you're working live in front of a room drawing on the fly, that's not going to look perfect - it's not possible. I had to get to where I could let that go so that I could be in service of the group and help them understand what they were hearing. The drawings didn't have to be perfect, they just had to be good enough. That was a real hurdle for me to overcome, because as an art director, that perfectionism is what's needed and wanted.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say hone your listening skills. This work is mostly about listening. If you can't stay present and listen - and it's a certain type of listening too - you can't get into it just because you love to draw or because you want to travel. If you can't really stay present, actively listening for long periods of time, then it's really not for you. It's a combination of listening, synthesizing, and then drawing. Drawing is the third thing, and you don't have to be able to draw really well to communicate with drawing. So if you're not an illustrator, don't worry about that. If you can listen, be present, and you're good at synthesis on the spot, then you can learn to draw simple imagery that will communicate. Another thing is that all my colleagues and friends who do this work really love to learn. Learning needs to be one of your top strengths - you need to want to be in a room learning something new. That's a lot of what keeps us going, it's just so exciting to learn about things you never would have thought of with such diverse clients. I'd say if you really love to learn, it'd be a great career.
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