The keynote speaker today at SXSW was Tina Roth Eisenberg, aka Swiss Miss. Tina is a Swiss designer that has lived in New York City for the past 13 years. She is the creator of swiss-miss.com, a design website (which has a devoted global following), her creative studio Studiomates and she also was the visionary for TeuxDeux a brilliant browser-based (and iPhone) To-Do application.
Tina also launched the, now global, Creative Mornings concept, run by Flyn Tracy in Sydney. More recently she launched Tattly, the successful designer temporary tattoo company.
The first thing she spoke of today was that she believes in ‘side projects’ and with a track record like hers it’s easy to understand why. She spoke passionately and the audience was hooked onto her every word. She spoke about her life passions and career passions being one and the same, indistinguishable from each other, and really tried to inspire the audience to really look at themselves.
Eisenberg gave her 11 rules to live by, both professionally and personally: ??
1. Invest your life in what you love.
2. Embrace enthusiasm.
3. Don’t complain. Make things better. ?
4. Trust and empower. ?
5. Experiences over money. ?
6. Surround yourself with like-minded people. ?
7. Collaborate.
8. Ignore haters. ?
9. Make time to think and breathe. ?
10. If an opportunity scares you, take it. ?
11. Be someone’s eccentric aunt.
The final rule in reference to her own eccentric aunt, who was the inspiration for Eisenberg as a child growing up in a small town in Switzerland.
While talking about the 11 rules, she frequently referenced her family and how they have been the inspiration for many of her life decisions. When Eisenberg was pregnant with her daughter she decided that when she was born she would fulfill her lifelong dream and open her own design studio. Following the birth of her son, Eisenberg decided to take a one-year sabbatical, which has now been extended to three years and counting.
Overall, this keynote lit up the Twittersphere and I think everyone in attendance realised exactly why SXSW is so great.
Matthew Joyce
Chief innovation officer
TMS