I’m Sarah-Ann Cromwell,
a corporate leadership coach at Be Fearless UK with a background as an international award-winning operatic comedian, grassroots conducting, and teaching. I haven’t gamed since:
and 12 weeks ago I hadn’t heard of Unreal Engine or Blender. I thrive on collaborating with market disruptors and individuals leading change, and I wanted to put my Be Fearless UK methodology to the test firsthand. Joining BOM Immersive Bootcamp was the perfect and terrifying opportunity to do both.
The Be Fearless UK Model
Your life is a diamond, with different facets representing various aspects of yourself. By merging your confident and authentic facets with those where you struggle, you refine your best, happiest self.
In my Unreal Engine project, I present facets where I'm most confident and authentic. Despite UE challenges, I conquered self-doubt by leveraging strengths from these areas. This transformed Unreal Engine from a source of conflict into a space of inspiration and innovation
Sarah-Ann Cromwell's BOM Port Folio
This portfolio blogs my personal BOM Immersive Arts Bootcamp journey and how I used the Be Fearless UK method and BOMs brilliant team of educators to create my project.
Sarah-Ann Cromwell's BOM Project
144 questions
Faced with a gazillion new terms entirely unfamiliar to me, the lessons might as well have been delivered in Mandarin. Initially hesitant to pester others with questions, I found myself staring at my laptop screen, which bore little resemblance to the projected display, for an eternity and napalmed my self-confidence
What do these words mean?
During the initial three weeks of BOM's immersive media bootcamp, I asked 144 questions—on average, one question every five minutes. Credit to the BOM team: their aim is to teach and inspire, and not once did I receive an eye roll.
If I want to improve at something, it's my responsibility to learn, and that means asking questions. Likewise, if you want your team to excel, it's your responsibility to nurture their growth by answering questions without judgment. That joint responsibility between me and the BOM team is how I went from this:
to this
in 144 questions.
What could you achieve if you had the confidence to ask and the curiosity to receive, 144 questions?
Practice makes progress..
I had just spent 2 hours unsuccessfully extruding a cube.
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Whilst people around me were achieving this:
Feeling overwhelmed and drowning in a hellish imposter experience, it was like being the new kid in class or a fresh intern, surrounded by people who seem to have it all figured out. It was humbling and awful. That evening, I chatted with my 6-year-old Be Fearless UK intern (my child): “How was college, mummy?” “I spent the entire lesson failing at Blender.” My intern tenderly took my face in her hands, gazed into my eyes, and responded, “Remember, mummy, you didn't fail; you just need to practice.” I refrained from reprimanding her for dispensing £3000 workshop insights for free and opted for a hug instead.
A 1-2-1 BOM session and 4 hours of practice later and I had my pepper pot (which I absolutely shared with every non tech friend I have on whattssap)
2 hours later, I had a
furry ball!
Winning at Blender.
Practice makes progress.
What could you achieve if you created a culture of practice?
Microglimmers
According to a recent AXA Mind Health Study the UK workforce regularly compare themselves with their peers and 51% admits it negatively impacts their mental health. I can relate to this having spent the first 5 weeks of BOM’s Immersive Boot Camp struggling with lights, boxes, materials, textures and a whole new language (What is an Asset anyway?) whilst people around me created, well, this:
Comparing myself with others was making me feel dumb. I had to kill comparison by training my brain to focus differently. How? Using the 3 Ws to collect my micro-glimmers:
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Where was I?
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Where am I now?
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Where will I be?
It sometimes took an entire bus journey home to divert my thoughts away from everybody else’s successes and train a glimmer on my own.
Where was I on Monday?
A trigger door that doesn't open and GLIMMER is under lit in neon pink.
​Where am I now end of Wednesday?
GLIMMER A trigger door that opens GLIMMER and I can add lighting and colour next session.
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One weekend I spent two hours at home downloading assets to create the Kid’s Corner of my project (which my little intern helped me to design). This was a Mega-Glimmer! I knew the definition of an asset and I was walking into the next BOM session with a physical plan to create something in Unreal.
Mega Glimmer
How does collecting micro-glimmers kill the negative mental health impact of comparing ourselves to our colleagues? It retrains the brain to chart our own progress and highlights where we were with where we are. By comparing oneself with oneself, the people around you stop being a catalyst of negativity and start being a source of inspiration. One feels positive about one's achievements and excited to be surrounded by talent and knowledge. And once your brain is in that place, the third W—Where will I be?—starts to look super exciting.
How could collecting micro-glimmers positively affect your and your colleagues' mental health?
Sarah-Ann Cromwell
Be Fearless UK
Time is precious so thank you for investing yours on my BOM port folio.
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Ask and receive questions with curiosity; practice will always lead to progress. Collect your micro-glimmers along the way and retrain your brain to recognize the inspirational people around you.
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Your life is a diamond, with different facets representing various aspects of yourself. By merging your confident and authentic facets with those where you struggle, you refine your best, happiest self.
Here are a few facets of my life, built in Unreal Engine, that serve as a source of confidence, happiness, and authenticity.
Here are some of the organisations I have worked with:
