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2/26/14

08: Rachael Markarian- How to Overcome Struggle to Achieve Your Dreams

 

“Every experience I have as a dancer is going to open my eyes to different things.”

Today I get to bring you my good friend, Rachael Markarian. She has a very powerful story, as she was born with her legs turned inward, barely able to walk, and now is a powerful, professional dancer for many big artists like Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Beyonce (just to name a few). Even this year, she danced with Beyonce at the Superbowl (which you’ll hear about). I’ve seen her dance, and she is incredible. On top of the amazing things she’s accomplished in her life, she’s a wonderful human being and a very inspiring individual.

On this episode, you’ll find what it takes to become a dancer and hear what is behind the scenes to the commitment, dedication, and discipline, as well as how having a strong vision for what you want will help you do whatever it takes to get there. We’ll also hear the story of how she moved to LA, went broke, and how she got her first break to go on tour with Rihanna. We get to learn about the sacrifice it takes to make it with art and doing what you love.

She talks about how running your career as a business, which a lot of dancers, actors, models etc don’t do, is so important. The things you need to invest into that will help you grow as an artist. How to market yourself as an artist and create and maintain the proper industry relationships that help you succeed.

Rachael is a powerhouse, and her dancing inspires everyone who she shares that with. So lets get into it!

“It’s not about you, it’s about the audience.”

[smart_track_player url=”https://soundcloud.com/nickonken/rachael-markarian” title=”Rachael Markarian – How to Overcome Struggle to Acheive Your Dreams Posted 3 years ago3 years Professional Dancer” image=”https://nionlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/08_RachelMarkarian_NIONradio_02.jpg” color=”de4b9b” ]

 Things we learn in this episode:

  • A brief back ground on how Rachael moved to Los Angeles to become a professional Dancer for Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Pink, Justin Timberlake, Cheyenne (big latin Artists)
  • What it’s like dancing with Beyonce at the Super Bowl
  • The experience of touring with Rihana and Katy Perry
  • Understanding the effect that a top level dancer has on the audience
  • Lessons learned from years of travel as a professional dancer
  • What it was like working with Justin Timberlake on Southland Tales (2006)
  • Becoming a dancer despite being born with physical restrictions
  • The struggles of developing as a 15 year old living alone in New York
  • Bringing commitment, dedication and discipline into creative work
  • Overcoming rejection with the life skills developed from rigorous training
  • The difference between a plan and a vision
  • How to not take things personally when achieving your dreams
  • How the business side of professional dancing works
  • The mindset for excelling at auditions
  • Strategies for signing with great agents
  • The importance of networking and connecting with people
  • How to pay it forward in the professional dancer career space
  • Understanding rejection as a path towards success
  • The sacrifices required to invest in where you want to be

Connect with Rachael Instagram | Twitter | IMDb

LET'S CONSPIRE & CREATE

CULTIVATING YOUR VISUAL UNIQUENESS AND STREAMLINING YOUR BRAND'S EVOLUTION

 

“Every experience I have as a dancer is going to open my eyes to different things.”

Today I get to bring you my good friend, Rachael Markarian. She has a very powerful story, as she was born with her legs turned inward, barely able to walk, and now is a powerful, professional dancer for many big artists like Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Beyonce (just to name a few). Even this year, she danced with Beyonce at the Superbowl (which you’ll hear about). I’ve seen her dance, and she is incredible. On top of the amazing things she’s accomplished in her life, she’s a wonderful human being and a very inspiring individual.

On this episode, you’ll find what it takes to become a dancer and hear what is behind the scenes to the commitment, dedication, and discipline, as well as how having a strong vision for what you want will help you do whatever it takes to get there. We’ll also hear the story of how she moved to LA, went broke, and how she got her first break to go on tour with Rihanna. We get to learn about the sacrifice it takes to make it with art and doing what you love.

She talks about how running your career as a business, which a lot of dancers, actors, models etc don’t do, is so important. The things you need to invest into that will help you grow as an artist. How to market yourself as an artist and create and maintain the proper industry relationships that help you succeed.

Rachael is a powerhouse, and her dancing inspires everyone who she shares that with. So lets get into it!

“It’s not about you, it’s about the audience.”

[smart_track_player url=”https://soundcloud.com/nickonken/rachael-markarian” title=”Rachael Markarian – How to Overcome Struggle to Acheive Your Dreams Posted 3 years ago3 years Professional Dancer” image=”https://nionlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/08_RachelMarkarian_NIONradio_02.jpg” color=”de4b9b” ]

 Things we learn in this episode:

  • A brief back ground on how Rachael moved to Los Angeles to become a professional Dancer for Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Pink, Justin Timberlake, Cheyenne (big latin Artists)
  • What it’s like dancing with Beyonce at the Super Bowl
  • The experience of touring with Rihana and Katy Perry
  • Understanding the effect that a top level dancer has on the audience
  • Lessons learned from years of travel as a professional dancer
  • What it was like working with Justin Timberlake on Southland Tales (2006)
  • Becoming a dancer despite being born with physical restrictions
  • The struggles of developing as a 15 year old living alone in New York
  • Bringing commitment, dedication and discipline into creative work
  • Overcoming rejection with the life skills developed from rigorous training
  • The difference between a plan and a vision
  • How to not take things personally when achieving your dreams
  • How the business side of professional dancing works
  • The mindset for excelling at auditions
  • Strategies for signing with great agents
  • The importance of networking and connecting with people
  • How to pay it forward in the professional dancer career space
  • Understanding rejection as a path towards success
  • The sacrifices required to invest in where you want to be

Connect with Rachael Instagram | Twitter | IMDb

2/26/14

08: Rachael Markarian- How to Overcome Struggle to Achieve Your Dreams

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“Every experience I have as a dancer is going to open my eyes to different things.”

Today I get to bring you my good friend, Rachael Markarian. She has a very powerful story, as she was born with her legs turned inward, barely able to walk, and now is a powerful, professional dancer for many big artists like Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Beyonce (just to name a few). Even this year, she danced with Beyonce at the Superbowl (which you’ll hear about). I’ve seen her dance, and she is incredible. On top of the amazing things she’s accomplished in her life, she’s a wonderful human being and a very inspiring individual.

On this episode, you’ll find what it takes to become a dancer and hear what is behind the scenes to the commitment, dedication, and discipline, as well as how having a strong vision for what you want will help you do whatever it takes to get there. We’ll also hear the story of how she moved to LA, went broke, and how she got her first break to go on tour with Rihanna. We get to learn about the sacrifice it takes to make it with art and doing what you love.

She talks about how running your career as a business, which a lot of dancers, actors, models etc don’t do, is so important. The things you need to invest into that will help you grow as an artist. How to market yourself as an artist and create and maintain the proper industry relationships that help you succeed.

Rachael is a powerhouse, and her dancing inspires everyone who she shares that with. So lets get into it!

“It’s not about you, it’s about the audience.”

[smart_track_player url=”https://soundcloud.com/nickonken/rachael-markarian” title=”Rachael Markarian – How to Overcome Struggle to Acheive Your Dreams Posted 3 years ago3 years Professional Dancer” image=”https://nionlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/08_RachelMarkarian_NIONradio_02.jpg” color=”de4b9b” ]

 Things we learn in this episode:

  • A brief back ground on how Rachael moved to Los Angeles to become a professional Dancer for Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Pink, Justin Timberlake, Cheyenne (big latin Artists)
  • What it’s like dancing with Beyonce at the Super Bowl
  • The experience of touring with Rihana and Katy Perry
  • Understanding the effect that a top level dancer has on the audience
  • Lessons learned from years of travel as a professional dancer
  • What it was like working with Justin Timberlake on Southland Tales (2006)
  • Becoming a dancer despite being born with physical restrictions
  • The struggles of developing as a 15 year old living alone in New York
  • Bringing commitment, dedication and discipline into creative work
  • Overcoming rejection with the life skills developed from rigorous training
  • The difference between a plan and a vision
  • How to not take things personally when achieving your dreams
  • How the business side of professional dancing works
  • The mindset for excelling at auditions
  • Strategies for signing with great agents
  • The importance of networking and connecting with people
  • How to pay it forward in the professional dancer career space
  • Understanding rejection as a path towards success
  • The sacrifices required to invest in where you want to be

Connect with Rachael Instagram | Twitter | IMDb

2/26/14

08: Rachael Markarian- How to Overcome Struggle to Achieve Your Dreams

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It’s an ongoing creative partnership focused on bringing your personal brand identity to life.

Your brand. Your website. Your visuals.
All shaped as a direct extension of who you are. The work also includes a bespoke process of identifying and aligning the right experts when needed, so nothing gets built out of sync with your core.

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A long view over changing terrain, the difference between a static rulebook and a living Brand Brain

Brand guidelines are static rules for the surface. A Brand Brain is a living codification of identity a team or an AI can generate from. The difference, defined.

Mountain terrain stretching in every direction, breadth before depth in choosing a practice

We trained six styles of kung fu in one month. Sampling that widely taught me how a creative actually finds the practice worth years: breadth first, the pull as data, then depth.

An unfamiliar landscape seen at full attention, travel waking up a creative eye

Travel makes you more creative because unfamiliar places wake up your perception. Why the effect works, and how to bring the sharpened eye home with you.

Elevated Realism portrait of Nick Cannon at ease in a light blue suit, brand photography that matches who the subject has become

Your brand photos lag behind you because you kept evolving and the images stayed frozen. Why the gap opens, how to spot it, and what closes it.

A mountain path with fixed edges, the chosen container that makes depth possible

The kung fu school had rules: locked-in weekdays, dawn starts, push-ups for lateness. A month inside taught me that constraints you choose are what make depth possible.

Out in the field making the day's work, a daily creative practice in motion

A daily creative practice is making one real thing every day, however small, to stay in a proactive state. A working definition, and how to build one that lasts.

A traveler standing clear of the crowd, one coherent identity the machines can read correctly

AI describes your brand by averaging your public record. How to codify one identity, repeat it everywhere, and get the machines to echo you back accurately.

A performer's world stripped to essentials, artistry carrying without production

I’ve photographed Justin Bieber several times and seen fame up close. His stripped-down Coachella set showed the thing I keep relearning about creative work: production amplifies, and only artistry carries.

Calm Jamaican coastline, a nervous system coming all the way down in creative burnout recovery

You recover from creative burnout by treating it as a nervous system state: build real down-cycles, read your own signals, and return to the work you love.

Mountain landscape in New Zealand, one clear thread running through a magnetic personal brand

A magnetic personal brand comes from coherence and one clear through-line. Here is how entrepreneurs build one, in order, and the trap that keeps most brands scattered.

Hiking a New Zealand mountain trail, learning at your own pace in midlife

I spent a month training kung fu in Wudang at 47, the oldest and slowest learner in the room. What being a beginner again in midlife taught me about pace, comparison, and starting anyway.

Photographer walking a snow-capped mountain ridge in New Zealand, the long practice of seeing that develops taste

You develop taste through thousands of reps of looking closely and deciding what works. A photographer’s honest answer on how taste gets built.

Silhouetted figure leaping from a sea cliff at sunset, committing to one coherent personal brand identity

You make a personal brand more coherent by naming the identity underneath it, distilling a one or two word through-line, and bringing the four layers into agreement. The full path, in order.

About the Blogger

I was born in a low middle class conservative religious family in the suburbs of Seattle. Art was and always has been my passion, and more than that a way of life. Starting as a graphic designer, I taught myself photography, built a commercial/editorial business shooting for the worlds biggest brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and more. I've also had the opportunity to photograph the world's biggest celebrities like Justin Bieber, Usher, Jessica Alba and more. I've curated a lifestyle around creativity and have learned a lot along the way which I get to share here. 

I was born in a low middle class conservative religious family in the suburbs of Seattle. Art was and always has been my passion, and more than that a way of life. Starting as a graphic designer, I taught myself photography, built a commercial/editorial business shooting for the worlds biggest brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and more. I've also had the opportunity to photograph the world's biggest celebrities like Justin Bieber, Usher, Jessica Alba and more. I've curated a lifestyle around creativity and have learned a lot along the way which I get to share here. 

NICK'S STORY