Polywork is the Professional Network that truly Supports Creatives

This article originally appeared on Polywork’s Blog. You can also find it on my website, and Medium.

Polywork is the professional social network built for the reality of work today where people have side hustles and passions that are just as important, if not more so, than their day jobs. It’s the network you need to show your true professional passions rather than be defined by industry stereotypes. During my time on Polywork I’ve been connected to incredible professionals and artists who I’ve been thrilled to collaborate with. The amount of talent and passion being poured into Polywork inspires me every time I scroll the feed. Whether you’re looking for new opportunities or just need some advice, Polywork is the network you need. They’ve been crucial in my own online presence and I’m thrilled to join their ranks of Polynaut advisors to help shape the platform to better help creatives everywhere. Join me today!

(Note: as a Polynaut advisor my invite link allows you to skip the waitlist. I am not compensated in any way for bringing people on the platform. Polywork DID make a one-time donation to a charity of my choice, I chose The Seeing Eye in Morristown, NJ in honor of my mother who was an alum. That is the extent of my compensation.)

Polywork’s Immediate Impact on?Me

When I added Polywork to my email signature alongside Linkedin, I got a lot of questions from people. However almost immediately I found the responses I would get were far more personal and far more tailored to my life. Going through Linkedin I realized there was really no sense of my life outside my Executive Assistant career. I’m a union theatre actor, an award-winning filmmaker, a podcast producer, I launched the first “film festival” dedicated to fiction podcasts. All of those things make up who I am and how I define myself, but on Linkedin they were afterthoughts. On Polywork they were front and center for anyone who wanted them. It completely changed the way I promoted myself outwardly and allowed me to present my whole, complete self.

Placing the Polywork icon as the first after my website has created a lot of conversation for me.

A Home for Networking and Collaboration

As a professional on Polywork you can mark yourself as “open to opportunities” and select areas of expertise you’d be interested in connecting with people. I’ve selected “Live Steaming”, “Advising Companies”, “Speaking on Podcasts”, “Content Creation”, and “Brainstorming”. A couple times a week I get connected to individuals (usually founders of startups) who are excited and passionate about an idea they’re working on and looking for feedback and insights. It has been such a breath of fresh air to talk to these humans, and it has doubled my own excitement for my projects. As I continue to build Audition Cat, I am gaining fantastic insights while simultaneously helping the larger community. The other day I had a call with a podcaster who was looking to launch their own show and stand out from the crowd. For an hour we talked about her idea, her point of view, and how she planned to produce her show.

Here you can find all the opportunities I’ve listed myself as being “open to”

By connecting to founders and other creative individuals, I am able to explore new ideas and expand my impact on the world. While podcasting is not my only focus, Polywork has given me another great reason to be actively involved in this community and help make a better industry for us all.

Find your Next Collaborator

I took advantage of Polywork’s new “opportunity” feature and posted an opening for a Tech Lead at my startup, Audition Cat. Within a couple days I was contacted by a few qualified and passionate candidates that I was able to interview and consider for the role. We even had someone find our “opportunity” through word of mouth and they were directed over to Polywork where they applied. We have since extended an offer to one of these candidates and are looking forward to expanding our team. Polywork made it so easy to get the word out. However, unlike Linkedin where you’re guaranteed to be spam messaged 9/10 times, Polywork has created a platform that inspires thoughtful response and outreach.

Here you can see currently featured opportunities posted on Polywork. This is how people found my company and applied for the job.

Just today I had my second call with the founder of a startup who I first connected with back in October 2021. He was excited to let me know that after implementing my thoughts they were getting ready for a soft launch of their app this week. He immediately reached back out through Polywork to get another call on the books so he could tell me all about it. I wouldn’t know this human except for Polywork, and unlike the “sell sell sell” mindset of Linkedin, Polywork created an actual human connection. I so greatly appreciate that mentality within the platform.

A Multi-Hyphenate’s Dream

Polywork allows you to tag yourself using “Badges” which identify your passions and professional pursuits. There’s a Badge for everything from “Podcaster” to “Trekkie”, and you can make your own if you don’t feel that you’ve been suitably represented. When you make a badge, you are forever marked as the creator on that Badge’s individual feed. There’s no limit to the badges you can add to your profile, and that extends even farther when you add highlights to your portfolio. As you tag relevant badges to your posts, visitors to your profile can filter your timeline by as many or as few badges as they like. If someone wants to see my highlights related to my work as a podcaster? No problem. What about as a Theatre Actor? Absolutely. In one easy-to-use platform you can see the totality of my endeavors, or just filter by the relevant ones to your visit. It’s an incredibly intuitive way to get a sense for a complete person as well as their professional pursuits.

As content creators, we’re often known for a single work — my podcast, your short film. In some cases that’s all they know us by. We’d like to think that our body of work consists of more than one piece, but without the necessary platform that allows us to present it in a cohesive way we can struggle to promote our entire body of work. Polywork solves this problem for creatives in a sleek interface that’s a joy to use.

Here you can see the Polywork timeline in action, with the dropdown for filtering by badge.

You Can’t Fake?It

I’ve heard of the pressures content creators face to only post content that will get a lot of likes and shares. When I first visited Polywork, I noticed two intriguing things:

1. There are no Likes to be found. Engagement is encouraged but in no way rewarded. There’s no “Clout” on Polywork everything is about honest portrayal of one’s self, and communication without the added pressure of going viral. Polywork’s only virality is in human engagement and utilizing the platform to make connections. It removes so much stress from the regular Social Media experience.
2. There was content on my feed from people who don’t share content regularly. In some cases, they had a long gap between posts. On any other platform the algorithm would delist these individuals and make it harder for their content to get in front of people. But on Polywork all posts are created equal, meaning that instead of scrolling and being confronted with the most sensational posts first, you’re encouraged to use badges to look for the content and individuals who will inspire you most.

These small changes to the Social Media experience have done wonders for my mental health when I interact with the internet. It’s been a hard shift. When I post a tweet, I refresh constantly to see if there have been likes, retweets, responses, and I want to be right on it when it happens to engage with everyone individually. On Polywork I can step away for a few days. When I return and find that there are comments on my post, I’m not concerned I missed my opportunity at virality. I get to take the responses at face value instead of instantly considering how I could twist this to benefit me.

Join Polywork?Today!

Polywork is the social network for creatives. If you are an actor, podcaster, filmmaker, or any other type of creative individual, you should be using Polywork to build your online portfolio and look for new collaborators. I’ve been using Polywork for a few months now and am loving the community and features. The best part? It’s free! Want to try it out? You can use my link to skip the waitlist and start building your profile today!

Seriously, how can you not love this mascot?!