Meet Marion COTTAVE

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marion COTTAVE. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marion below.

Marion, thank you so much for joining us and offering your lessons and wisdom for our readers. One of the things we most admire about you is your generosity and so we’d love if you could talk to us about where you think your generosity comes from.

My parents. I was raised by extremely generous and kind people, something which I am very grateful for every single day. They have taught me to give and not take anything for granted. I believe it’s very freeing to choose to give into and believe in something, no matter the outcome.
I grew up in a house constantly full of people visiting, sharing stories and was also lucky to travel a lot and see how different everyone could be very early on. I think the more we can experience difference at an early age the more we can tune into our generosity, kindness and understanding.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m a video and film producer which means many different things. The way I see it, I’m a project manager, a counselor, a therapist, an architect, an engineer, a friend and a mother, all at once. You have to be a jack of all trades to do this job and you have to absolutely love it and give it your all, as it can be very unforgiving and heartbreakingly difficult. I have worked on a range of projects in fiction, TV, advertising as well as corporate and educational programs.

I also work with a creative partner to write and develop horror short and long form films. It’s a great genre to approach the many societal and human issues we want to focus on. We’re developing projects about the impact of gentrification on minorities in the Greater London area as well as the role of enablers in relationships with drug abusers.

The most special and exciting thing about my job is working with a team towards a common understanding and collaborating on long term projects. My work is a healthy mix of group situations and time alone where I think about things in my own space before presenting it to the group.
I enjoy the anticipation almost more than the execution. Partly because the execution will very rarely go as planned (as anyone who’s ever been on any kind of film/video shoot will know), partly because I enjoy imagining it almost as much as seeing happen in real life. Getting to use my imagination on a daily basis is a great privilege.

I also appreciate the freelance status which gives me enough freedom to choose my projects and collaborate with very different people.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Organisational skills, I’ve always had and they’re essential. It helps when you love to tidy things up in an efficient way and do it naturally but it’s even better to learn about the various styles one can do this. Not everyone has the same reflexes and you want to collaborate with people, not force them to see things your way.

Being able to think on your feet and not hold grudges or hold on to the way things are set, as they’ll inevitably change. This is quite different from honouring your values and priorities and it’s important to know the difference. You can be perfectly efficient and coherent in a changing environment while maintaining the bases you consider crucial.

People skills is a must. That means empathy, listening, having an interest in others and knowing how to communicate effectively.

Manage stress in any way that works for you, don’t take things personally and learn to bounce back. I took a while with this last one, until I found ways to express my own creativity through my own projects, and separate what was really important to me as an individual from what is important when working with a team towards another client or artist’s goal.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

When I feel overwhelmed I start a dialogue with myself to look at things in a strictly factual manner.
This allows to state the facts of the situation and momentarily push away the emotions that may conflict with the facts. This is usally coupled with a few deep breaths which helps the body get into that state.
Once I start looking at the facts, I’ll usually organize the events that follow into priorities: what can I do VS can’t do? What needs to happen first? What do I need to focus on VS put on hold or now?

To anyone who becomes really overwhelmed at work because there is too much to do or because co-workers may not be doing the part they promised to do, I would go to my manager and say: “This is the situation, what do you want me to prioritize? As it stands, it is not possible to achieve everything so let’s order things so that the first can happen, then the next etc…”
Being freelance, I am my own manager, so I have to have that dialogue with myself.

It works the same in a personal environment, with family duties, relationships, anything can be overwhelming.

I think it’s important to remember that you can have it all but absolutely not all at the same time

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maazion/?hl=fr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionworks/