The biggest challenge amateur creators, artists and producers face is stepping across the line from the amateur realm into the professional sphere. That seemingly small gap can feel lightyears wide without contacts in the industry or access to solid feedback from knowledgeable experts. What amateurs often need more than anything else is to connect with people who were in their situation at one point in time and understand what it takes to make it. As the old saying goes, "It's not what you know, but who you know that matters." The plot below, which comes from a 2018 Jobvite survey, reveals just how much our world operates on connections: friendships and personal connections are by far and away the main sources job seekers use to discover new job opportunities.17

Despite the digital interconnectivity of our world, it is still challenging to form real-life, career-assisting connections. Amateur, especially those without formal training, face an uphill battle without solid contacts to the industry. With Shadower, however, amateurs can receive the kind of knowledge and personal connections they need to take their craft to the next level, helping them turn their passion into a full-time career.

Shadower will be especially useful for amateurs stepping into a new, technical field without any prior knowledge. Commonly, the more specialized the field, the less beginner tutorials and well-written guides are available. If an average user wants to learn about a technical field without formal education, he or she is more-or-less expected to just grapple with the material for years until it becomes comfortable. But for many people, that process does not always work. Resources like YouTube, SkillShare, Lynda have great content, but often, they lack the specificity that can only be acquired by real-world experience.