Barbara Flynn-Franzoni, Founder and Digital Media Specialist at Copped On Digital Media
Barbara Franzoni is a digital designer and the founder of Copped On Digital Media, a business that specialises in visual storytelling and credible online presence. With a first-class honours degree in creative digital media, a professional diploma in digital marketing and an enormous passion for storytelling, design and technology, she helps clients convey their message in print, video or web. Barbara also writes for Irish Tech News.
Through Copped On Digital Media, Barbara helps clients achieve credibility and brand consistency across various media. Her experience is in film-making, web and graphic design, and she assists clients with all their digital imagery, from their logo, website and photos to promotional videos and business cards.
While Barbara has been honing her skills for quite a few years, winning two hackathons along the way, Copped On Digital Media is less than a year old and is already attracting a great deal of positive attention.
How did you get into this line of work and What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same line of work?
I worked as a secretary for twenty years, all the time wishing I had a more creative role - I enjoyed creating presentations and really threw myself into any chance at all to be more creative.
I was made redundant when a company I worked for started to wind up. After moving on, I soon faced another two redundancies and realised that it was the role of the traditional secretary that was redundant, not me.
A friend of similar age asked me to look over his college application as he wanted to return to college full-time to study creative media. While editing his application, I found myself wishing that I was the one applying, as the course sounded so exciting.
When I mentioned this to him, he remarked that I should absolutely apply and so I did. A few months later, I celebrated my 40th birthday as a first-year in college and received cards and wishes from my fellow students who were mostly teenagers. The Creative Digital Media course is encompassed graphic design, film-making, UX, web design and much, much more.
Four years later, I graduated with a first-class honours degree, my first hackathon win, loads of new friends and a love for utilising high tech, design and accessibility into all communications.
My advice for anyone looking to change career is that it's never too late to transform yourself - all you need is a strong interest, an open mind and the willingness to learn. If you know deep inside that you are not using your talents or living the life that you should be living, then change it. We are not old dogs who cannot learn new tricks. The world around us changes daily, and so do we. It is not yet time to sit on your laurels. There is still so much to try, learn, and create.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
I wish I had known how easily things would fall into place and then I would have stepped out of my comfort zone a lot sooner. Fear of failure caused me to stay in one place for far too long. Once I made the decision to create Copped On Digital Media, help came in the form of mentorship, an incubator place, good friends and many opportunities to shine.
Do you have a mentor?
I have a great mentor in Annabelle Conway of the Incubate 4 Growth program which runs in Innovate Dublin in Ballymun. The program is helping me to grow my business quickly in the areas of video, photography and graphic design.
My confidence is also growing, which I attribute mainly to Annabelle, who has encouraged me to achieve more than I thought possible in a relatively short space of time. I'm still adjusting to self-employment, and am not yet comfortable with giving myself the title of Founder or CEO or anything like that, so instead of displaying a job title, my business card simply reads, "Barbara Franzoni is Copped On to all things digital" because I am.
What living person do you most admire?
I admire people who challenge and disrupt assumptions, injustice and inequality. I particularly admire Cindy Gallop, the mighty maven of advertising who has taken the world to task concerning all kinds of diversity, including age disruption.
I am a strong believer in putting more value on what is right, than what is easy or popular, which is why I love how she spectacularly challenges ableism, ageism, sexism, racism and taboos around sex education.
She says that homogeneity is the enemy of creativity, and I think this is so true. It's only with the diversity of thought and experience that we can be genuinely innovative.
What companies or brands do you think are getting it right?
Lidl is absolutely rocking their marketing here in Ireland. Their social media engagement is totally on point, encompassing localised humour as well as great customer service, attentively addressing tweeted concerns with respect and positivity.
One of their advertisements recently drew some racist remarks, and their brilliant response was to confront this unjustified negativity by running the ad more often. This positive approach, which I find both authentic and brave, has won them many fans here.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
The best advice I ever received came from a lecturer in the Technological University Dublin when I was worried about my own ability in the face of an incredible opportunity.
Her advice was just to say yes, and secure the opportunity - then I could deal with all my doubts and worries later. She said that I could ask for any help I required in order to meet the challenge, but to have no doubt that I would, indeed, meet the challenge. That was in relation to the first hackathon I ever entered, as part of the team that subsequently won.
How do you network?
Officially, I network both online and in-person at events, but unofficially I network all the time. At first, I thought that 'networking' was scary, and as a natural introvert, I thought it was definitely not for me.
Then I discovered 'networking' is really just a fancy word for chatting with people. There is no magic formula, and you don't have to rattle off your elevator pitch as soon as you shake hands.
In fact, I rarely ever use a pitch now; instead, I just chat with the people I meet, whether I meet them online, at the bank, in the local shop, or even at a fancy networking event.
What are your thoughts on the future of social media?
Ten years ago, social media was dismissed as being just a way to keep in touch with friends and family. Some called it a barrier to productivity. These days, we have come to think of social media as a place rather than a thing.
I have a particular interest in accessibility, having worked a lot with disability groups, and for many people with mobility issues, social media is a place more accessible than any physical venue.
Social media is always there. It is not restricted by time or transport. This accessibility applies to the able population too, as social media has become the place to socialise, meet friends, hold business meetings, search for employment and to display your business offering. It is where we interact and transact, where we play and where we work.
Social media is where your clients are, and it affords you the power to interact with, inform and listen to them. Watching trends, in particular, is like getting the inside track into what people are talking about right now - it's like taking the pulse of global consciousness.
By interacting with people on social media, you can give personality to your brand, so that people understand your values and character and this builds the kind of trust and loyalty that no traditional advertising could ever hope for.
Right now, we see a lot of stories on social media, spreading from Snapchat and Instagram to other platforms. Businesses that incorporate stories are infusing their brands with personality and pushing themselves to the very front of public consciousness, just think about how stories are the first thing that you see when you open an app such as Facebook or Instagram.
Your social media platform of choice?
My favourite social media platform is Twitter. I've always found Twitter to be the most viral and wide-reaching of the social media platforms allowing tweeters to find commonalities with people they would not normally meet.
Twitter also allows a very open interaction with access to many brands and personalities. This is due to reach being determined more by topic and subject matter than by existing social circles. Another reason I like twitter is the brevity of tweets, which challenge tweeters to make their point in a far more concise manner than say Facebook.
What drives you each day?
My biggest daily drivers are the people who have put their trust in me and my abilities, whether they are clients or friends who I have offered to help out. Holding someone's trust is a huge honour and one that I would never betray.
What's the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
I think that a lack of self-belief is the most common reason why people give up on their dreams. Sometimes you have to remind yourself of your ideals and what it is you are trying to achieve (in other words, why you started in the first place).
Sometimes advice from others is not purely objective but can be slanted towards what would best suit them, and this can result in people being led away from the path to their own goals and onto a diversionary tangent. When you know who you are and remember what you want to achieve, then you will always find your way back to the right path for you.
What are you not very good at and What are you good at?
I am very good at seeing past fuss and convention to what is truly important and to bringing these truths to the attention of others. However, I'm not always good at being tactful about these discoveries, and sometimes people refer to me as being "brutally" honest - I just don't see the point in beating about the bush.
I am the type of person whose feelings are displayed right across my face and general demeanour, and I, therefore, find it difficult to keep secrets, perhaps one of the reasons why being a secretary didn't suit me.
On the plus side, I'm a non-conforming creative who is extremely empathetic and finds it easy to place myself in other people's shoes. This has obvious benefits not only for UX and accessibility but also in helping me to discover what clients really want to achieve in their messaging, even when they're not so sure how to verbalise this.
Which words do you overuse?
I overuse adverbs, particularly "really" which I use a lot for emphasis and to convey conviction, e.g., I really loved that play which had a really compelling story, and the actor conveyed his character really well... really!
What are you most proud of in your life?
I'm proud of the example I set for my daughter, in showing her that she can be whatever she wants and that anything is possible. By looking at me, she sees the nonsense of societal norms that would pigeonhole people into a single role or dimension.
She sees that one person can have many roles that change and evolve over time and that it's never too late to learn something new and to use that learning in a new and innovative way. I'm extremely proud of my daughter, and I love the way she sees me as being so much cooler than I see myself to be.
When are you happiest?
I'm happiest at the end of a busy day. When those days obligations have been met, and I can relax on the sofa for a cup of tea, and a cuddle with my daughter.
What is your hobby?
I recently rediscovered my love of painting, thanks to attending art classes in my local library. I enjoy the mindful process of applying paint to canvas, secure in the knowledge that this is something just for me with no external expectations. My husband has been very supportive, always able to find a space on the wall to display my latest artwork.
Your favourite author?
My favourite author is JK Rowling, as I love the social commentary that pervades her books, mainly about silly prejudices that some people hold despite them flying in the face of actual evidence and fact.
She is a wonderful storyteller who uses a world full of magic and wonder to really tap into our most receptive state of being. I see her stories as being akin to Aesops Fables with learnings and truisms peppered throughout a really entertaining adventure.
A positive thought you like to share with people.
Life can't be about regret because nothing in our lives is truly set in stone - so swap regret for change. If there is something that does not feel right or fulfilled then instead of passively regretting missed chances, go out there and change what you don't like. And change yourself too; you can actively take control of your life, stretch and be more. None of us is the finished article. We are all still learning and changing as we move forward. The day that you think you know everything is the day you decide you're not willing to learn and the world can move on without you.