Imagine If; through the eyes of a ten year old

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, and welcome to the interview of the CENTURY here with Cat Hase. I am Annabelle Joyce, I am 10 years old and I will be asking Cat (Auntie Cattie we call her) questions about her job.

I was asked to interview Cat about her job so people could read about it through the eyes of a ten year old.

I came up with some questions that I wanted to ask her – some that just popped into my head and some that Cat helped me with.

In a short summary what do you do?

‘I help design workshops that are full of fun, interaction and games so that people can enjoy going to the workshop, and therefore are more likely to learn something because they are enjoying themselves.’

Why do you do what you do?

‘I think that there are lots of jobs in the world that are really boring and if there is something we can do to make learning more enjoyable, then why shouldn’t we?! When we were children we learned lots of things and had lots of fun doing it, like when you climb a tree you’d learn which branches not to climb on and what happens when you fall and it was fun experimenting. I think that we should do more of that as adults as well instead of feeling like everything has to be really serious all the time.’

How do you earn money?

‘There are two different ways, one of them is people give me money to help them design workshops, so we have a Playdate which is where I work with someone and we design a workshop together. Usually they’ve got a workshop that they’re going to deliver and they need some help coming up with new ideas or making it more fun for people  or sometimes they have got lots of ideas and they  want help making them into something that will work and other times people want my help with ideas. So people pay me and then we have a Playdate. The other way I make money is by designing games for workshops that I then put on a website called the Toybox that people can then buy. Then when they buy them they can use them in their own workshops.’

What sort of people do you work with?

‘I mainly work with people who work for themselves, like me, who love going into companies and running workshops. So people that really love standing up in front of people and running the workshops but sometimes just need some help designing what it is they are going to do in the workshop. And then sometimes I work with people who do the same thing but work inside a big company and needs some help.’

At what point do people ask you for help and why?

‘People ask me for help when they have workshops coming up in about 2-4 weeks and they are either stuck🤔 or more likely they have got some ideas of things to do but don’t know how to make it real. Some people come to me because they have some ideas and need to know the best way to do it that will be fun and interesting for the people that come to the workshop.’

How do people find you?

‘There are three ways people usually find me:

🙋🏼‍♀️ one of them is I sometimes meet them at an event

🖇️ or they might see me on linked in which is a social media platform where I share interesting post about what I do

🗣️ or other people who know what I do, tell others and then they get in contact with me usually from linked in.’

What sort of problems do you work with?

‘Usually someone has a piece of information that they want to deliver and want to deliver it in a fun way and want to turn it into something more interactive so the people in the room can be more curious and want to know more and ask questions. So I help solve the problems for the people who come to the workshops. Those problems are often about communication, team working, learning new skills, leadership and management, and getting on better together.’🙏

What sort of games do you design?

‘My games are designed to help people understand themselves better, to understand each other better and to have meaningful discussions about what they have learned and how they will use it going forwards.’

What do you need in order to design the games?

‘If I’m designing a game for the toy box, they start with a spark that could have come from anywhere. Quite often I’m having a conversation with someone and something just sparks in my brain and I’m already designing the game in my head and how everything will fit together. Even if our conversation wasn’t related to work or games!

If I’m designing with a client the spark🧨 comes from their topic or challenge. Then I let it grow and picture in my mind what it could look like as a game. But if I’m working with a client, sometimes I have to ask more questions to get an idea of what they want the outcome to look like.

Most of the time it’s socialising with people that gives me that spark of an idea and it could be anyone I’m talking to it wouldn’t just have to be people I work with.’

What do you enjoy about your job and why?

‘I love working with lots of different people on lots of different topics because it means that it’s always different and exciting.

It’s also always really interesting to see and hear what people are doing and learn from them as well sometimes. I love that because I’m always learning which means I have even more information and ideas to share with my next client. I also really like games so I love that I get to do that as my job.’🧩

What are the difficulties of working on your own?

‘I think the main one is that I’m on my own and I have to do everything, so that means even all the really hard and boring stuff I have to do all of that. But it’s also that if I have a problem or something goes wrong, it’s just me in my business and I’m the one who has ti fix it! Sometimes that can be hard and sometimes it can get a bit  lonely.’😔

What are the benefits of by yourself?

‘I can do whatever I want whenever I want so that’s pretty cool 😎 I can choose what I do and how I do it and how quickly or slowly I do it and I don’t have to ask permission, I can just get on with it. Also I can work work much faster on my own than working in a big company. Because I work on my own I can always go to a cafe and meet a friend and do some work there so it makes it less lonely.

How do you make sure everything functions properly?

I wonder if anything ever functions properly or if it just functions well enough…? Because if you think about it everything is always changing so you could be doing something in a good way but it might not always be the best way so sometimes I observe what goes on around me and try to update my work to the best it can be.🏅’

TWO STARS AND A WISH: What are two things you think you do well and one thing you think you could improve on?

'One thing I do well is that I think I inspire people to try something new (it could be games or tools or just thinking differently).

Two is I think I am really good at having ideas 💡 and also I think what adds onto that is that I’m also really good at turning those ideas into real games and workshops.

And the thing I think I could do better is that I think I could have a better customer journey so when someone starts working with me I think I could do more to try and make them feel special and welcome so I would like to try to improve on that.👍’

Having heard all the answers to the questions (my questions) I think some of the most interesting things about Cat’s job I found were that you can do whatever you want whenever you want and that you’re not always stuck on the same topic with the same person, you work on different topics with different people.

What do you think a ten year old would think of YOUR job?

Goodbye from meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!🤪😎😛

If you are interested go check out Cat’s work in the Toybox!

A p.s. from Cat: Thanks Annabelle for both interviewing me and writing this up. I loved answering your questions, especially the ones I wouldn't have thought of myself. And a massive proud moment for me when you shared your Two Stars and a Wish question - you'd fit right in here at Imagine If!