We were lucky to catch up with Marisa Tontaveetong recently and have shared our conversation below.
Marisa , so great to have you on the platform and excited to have you share your wisdom with our community today. Communication skills often play a powerful role in our ability to be effective and so we’d love to hear about how you developed your communication skills.
Navigating the realm of efficient communication hasn’t been without its challenges. Particularly when I discovered I had ADHD in my adulthood years. Not knowing this prior, I’ve grappled with a tendency to veer off-topic like a squirrel on a sugar rush, speak at the speed of a bullet train, and string my thoughts together like a kebab made by a distracted chef. But here’s the twist: that quirky chaos somehow landed me in leadership and management roles.
My prior communication style often resembled a high-speed train, hurtling through listeners’ minds, frequently leaving me disconnected from the content originating in my thoughts. Though I was always eager to share insights, I observed that while individuals appreciated the information, the many grateful awestruck looks I received may have been closer to Edvard Munch’s The Scream – a mix of overwhelming horror.
Then one day, I started paying closer attention to some of my favorite speakers on YouTube and how they were able to tell stories that were informative and engaging at the same time. This prompted me to introspect and led me to recognize the importance of clarity and narrative coherence, traits I found in the speakers I admired.
I embarked on a journey that involved immersing myself in TED Talks and studying accomplished speakers such as Simon Sinek, Vinh Giang, and many stand-up comedians. Further, I actively pursued opportunities to engage in workshops and panel discussions, recognizing their value in honing large-scale communication abilities. This process demanded preparation, thoughtfulness, and adaptability to diverse audiences, ultimately helping me refine my content and delivery. My bar is to keep it simple and give the audience the most helpful information about their situation.
A pivotal aspect of my growth has been the willingness to scrutinize my performances-the cringe-worthy part – watching my panels and talks on recorded video. Watching myself as a third person was eye-opening, and I could see the list of things I had to work on: Volume and speed, um’s that could populate a small island, and sounding like a broken record on repeat. I became my critique panel to see how to make my talks more engaging each time.
But it’s not all rehearsed lines and serious stuff. Spontaneity is like that sprinkle of magic in communication. It’s all about finding the right balance so you’re not turning a chat into a three-hour monologue.
In the end, sharing info isn’t enough; it’s about boiling it to its juiciest bits. I got involved in community volunteering and learned to gather feedback. Metrics became my pals, helping me measure instruction effectiveness – I ask the people I talk to if they understood our conversation or if I am throwing words into a black hole.
I also watch many marketing videos as they clearly and cleverly communicate points in a short time. One crucial concept I integrated from this was the idea of “drip content.” It’s like marinating ideas in people’s minds, letting them savor each bite instead of force-feeding the whole buffet in one go.
I also use Grammarly and ChatGPT to assist in streamlining my written communication and help me check my tone or give me sentence structures based on my words that I can pick and string together, keeping my style and voice uniquely me but with a system that makes storytelling sense.
My approach to communication revolves around three fundamental tenets:
1. Preparation: I think about the context of the conversation and limit my critical points to a concise selection of 2-3 so the topic is precise.
2. Connection: Beyond conveying information, I need to take in the nonverbal cues and context of the conversation I am speaking with. For example, in working as a team, I often tell my team the what, the why, and the impact. This strategy helps people understand and care more about their roles.
3. Dynamic Feedback: The easiest way to know if your communication is working is to ask with an open mind. I tweak my methods of delegation based on feedback. As a neurodivergent, I understand how hard it is to understand instructions a certain way, and I keep that in mind to be flexible with those I interact with.
The best part of working on my communications is that it is a lifelong benefit in my relationships. Making life simpler for others translates into smooth sailing in the long term.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
It’s a little interesting in terms of explaining what I do because I often hold more than one career position at a time butthey are all closely related to who I am as a creative storyteller in the animation field and my beliefs.
For my day job, I currently work remotely as an Art & Animation Director remotely at Black Women Animate Studio (bwastudios.com). This fuels my passion creatively as I am able to work on various creative dream projects streaming on famous streaming platforms and networks, be focused on the creative aspect without the management work, and have the flexibility. My colleagues and bosses are understanding with diverse backgrounds and have foster an environment of unity and care. The mission of BWAStudios really resonates with how I work and there is much care and consideration not just for the output but for the people behind the scenes. The studio create and produce programming, and content for all platforms while building equity in the animation industry by consciously hiring Black women, women of color, and nonbinary people of color. It is extensively about inclusion, not exclusion.
On the side, I also co-own a creative studio Slothique LLC where we were working on our own original content on a different revenue model. This is great because our goal is to make what we want without restrictions with full creative control. As we all have our own day job working for others, Slothique is our safe zone to approach a structure in anyway we want. We intentionally broke away from the traditional mold of what an expected studio is and currently only work through referral on selected client projects. We also use Slothique as a creative training incubator where we offer paid apprenticeships, partnership with educational institution, and focus on educating our future generation on soft skills to help them gain leverage in the industry. Another service we offer that’s also been very popular is consultation on all things animation for those interested in making an animation from pricing, realistic expectations, and to helping source talent.
In addition, I am currently the executive director of a non profit called ASIFA-South International Animation Society where we focus on gathering and building the animation community. We collect databases on jobs, film festivals, animator’s directory and created a white paper on the sustainability of the animation industry in Georgia. We run the ASIFAC Animation Festival and Conference every two year where we showcase animation made in the South and internationally. We also do year round free and low cost workshops with schools and libraries and do round tables with other organizations to help represent animation at the table on all things entertainment. We also celebrate International Animation Day every end of October with a free public screening. We also have a monthly creative mixer with industry guest every last Weds of the month at Kennesaw State University
I am also in my last term as the Chair of the Early Career Development Committee after a full decade of volunteering with ACM SIGGRAPH, a prestigious special interest group in computer graphics. My involvement has allowed me to meet with so many amazing artistic and technologically savvy individuals and I am able to experiment with so many forefront technology at beta or prototype stage, including a lot of AI and machine learning tools. In my role as the early career development, it has also allowed me to follow the pulse of the students and early career community and fill in the gap between what is needed to help them break into the industry. As I take a hiatus from volunteering, I am hoping to be able to take what I learn back to improve and share this with our industry.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Reflecting on my journey, I find three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that have profoundly impacted my progress: Resilience, Introspection, and Compassion. If my journey were like a boat on the sea, Introspection would be the compass, giving me directions to where I want to go. Resilience would be the sail that slowly and steadily takes me closer to my goal. Compassion would be the unseen wind that ultimately brings me to where I ended up.
The first essential quality is Introspection. Amid the chaos of our surroundings and the tendency to compare ourselves with others, the power of Introspection shines. It allows us to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses objectively, critically assess advice or opinions from others, and continually realign our beliefs. By preventing an excessive attachment to particular aspects of life, such as religion, politics, or career, Introspection liberates us from being swept away or stifling our evolution. This attribute has guided me through challenging decisions, even when the outcome isn’t favorable. It enhances my problem-solving by encouraging innovative solutions beyond conventional methods.
The second would undoubtedly be resilience and patience. In pursuing our ambitions, we often fixate on the destination without fully grasping the intricate steps and effort required to reach it. The learning process demands time, and it’s easy to become restless. However, I’ve come to understand that the journey itself, including the mistakes and missteps, forges a resilient spirit. This resilience propels us toward our goals and cultivates self-development and growth. Even when the finish line is in sight, that final stretch can feel like the longest; thus, embracing progress one step at a time is crucial advice.
Perhaps compassion is the most important quality, especially in my collaborative endeavors involving larger communities with the goal to leave the world a better place. While fervently striving for our goals, losing sight of integrity is easy. While I am not always right at all, trying to anchor my viewpoints back to compassion reminds me of our shared humanity, encompassing strengths and fallibilities. This understanding grants me a sense of freedom and is helpful when I am faced with difficult choices. Compassion is how I try my hardest to maintain alignment between my principles and my pursuits.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
As I am a big tech enthusiast and an artist, a current challenge today would be the Ethical use of AI as a tool in our field and any field. I’m a big proponent of putting power in the hands of the creators and people being able to create more easily. Many tools also employ AI in the front and back end that have already seamlessly integrated into our lives.
I experimented and used many different tools such as MLRunway, Ebsynth, WonderDynamics, Cascadeur, and more to advance my workflow, and many studios also integrate AI into their workflow. I find that it can be an incredibly powerful storytelling tool, along with other tools that can enable artists to focus more time on creating and less on marketing, note-taking, etc with other tools.
However, I also grapple with how we interact with the tools and the need for more regulations. In terms of generative art, from different platforms such as the popular Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, to mention a few, the data being used in the models were “donated” from a number of non-profit organizations collaborations form Common Crawl data scraped from the web without consent from creators that may also include sensitive or private information of people’s personal datas.” I am all for democratizing tools for the arts, but copyright laws regarding what works to protect creators have fallen behind. This is also in the case of data privacy and protection of personal likeness and right of publicity in name, appearance, voice, and brand when faced with current day technology. Ideas can not be copyrighted, but when the artwork generated uses a person’s name to generate a style or is turned into direct competition for their livelihood, it must be reexamined. It is not about gatekeeping; credit should be given where credit is due.
In the Stabel Diffusion Litigation, artist Karla Ortiz mentioned four main things that must be considered.
The 1 T and 3 C’s: Transparency, Compensation, Consent, and Credit
We can tell if a piece of artwork is AI-generated or assisted. Compensation for the likeness of style in the database model. If Stable Diffusions and corporates benefit monetarily from the data used to compete with the artists directly, there needs to be compensation. I’m not naive to think this is easy, but there needs to be room for discussion. Credits to the artists for their work are also important. Even AI Artists nowadays want to be acknowledged for their prompts, so this goes the same for the artists. Consent is perhaps the most important factor. Instead of opting out, opt-in should be the model of all trained data. There is no reason this should not be so; even if the progress is slower in development, no one is in mortal peril. Data is probably one of the most valuable things we give away for free in exchange for online connectivity.
While AI tools may be like a genie that’s been let out of the bottle that you can’t put back, I feel that state regulations are necessary. Our current issue is that the world is in an AI arms race, and no country wants to be behind the other out of fear or other reasons. However, as humans sharing the same world, we need to realize our power in shifting directions and look at things long-term. Just because we can do things doesn’t always mean we should. This is why compassion is important in the community, especially in leadership positions.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ginger1bf2.myportfolio.com/animation
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asifasouth
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1017171275043875
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisa-tontaveetong-animator
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/asifasouth?lang=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwuiRt8lD5R2QwlB-i6EQhQ
- Other: asifa-south.com s3.siggraph.org slothique.com
Image Credits
JuJu Lupacchino
