10 Things That Built Me as a Designer and Business Owner

Reflecting On The Past…

I’m getting a little personal in this post. I’ve been on this creative journey since the early 2000’s, and a lot has changed over the decades, but all the changes continue to shape who I’ve become as a creative entrepreneur. Here are the 10 things that have shaped my design and business journey in the most valuable ways.

1 - “Difficult” clients 

Do they really exist though? Most of the clients I found difficult were the ones who pushed the boundaries I didn’t have yet, so I made myself miserable in order to please them. Improving my boundaries, communication, and process have made my work so much easier, even when clients present unexpected challenges. And I’ve only ever had one that was truly a nasty nut. They got great work from me regardless. 🙂‍↕️ I never picked up the habit of complaining about clients online. (Confiding in friends? Sure!) Even if they deserve it, it only makes YOU look bad and shows you don’t have your shoot together. And there’s always something you can learn- especially when it’s uncomfortable for you.

2 - Doing a lot of work, cheap

Like every designer, I started somewhere, and my somewhere was doing any work that strengthened my Adobe software skills, from dirt cheap logos to restoring old photos. (One of my first loves was photography.)  I designed postcards, flyers, signs, print and digital ads, t-shirts, and even magazine layouts. I’m still using those old Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign skills that would be downright painful to try and acquire now that AI has been thrown in the mix affecting everything from our patience to our expectations. Now that I’m specializing in branding and web design, I no longer need to figure out print specifications for documents, but it sure helps to have that stack of skills if I have to dust off a tool somewhere to get something done fast. 

A postcard I designed with my own hand-drawn illustration of Anthony Bourdain, using Photoshop, InDesign, and ProCreate for Ipad.

3 - Design school, naturally

Ah college. I felt like I was home in those analog design classes– cutting out shapes, hand-drawing letters, sculpting in 3d, and sketching still life’s. I learned just as much off the computer as I did on it. And back then, I was eager to absorb and try everything, with high hopes for my future as the creative director of some big company, not even knowing that title existed yet. Sometimes, I still miss buying overpriced art supplies at the campus bookstore with my student loan money. Don’t. Ever. Do. That. You won’t be able to afford them decades later while you’re paying off the loans for your fancy education. 😖 Well, back then we didn’t have YouTube University, and you only had to be breathing to qualify for a student loan. It was downright criminal.

4 - Moving. A lot.

It wasn’t the greatest to move so much, but I gained so much perspective and inspiration from the different places I got absorbed into. Our country is so vast, with all kinds of different realities happening for different reasons. It’s interesting to see the things that make us unique as well as what we have in common. And, I have plenty of friends scattered about the country now!

5 - Working as a hairdresser

I worked on a busy urban street where I became friends with the local business owners in the community and learned about their goals and challenges. I saw their rationale behind business choices and the behind-the-scenes realities of day-to-day operations. I also had a mentor there who taught me the basics of her business and the importance of paying attention to things like taxes and budgets and always showing up. Little did I know that being behind the chair was a good training ground for one day becoming a business owner myself.

6 - Self study

I took as many free courses as I could get my hands on and followed designers I could learn from on social media and podcasts. I believe it’s always important to follow the people who are where you want to go. Since I didn’t study web design in school, I taught myself by building things. I experimented with different software and tools and studied the mysterious inner workings of the technical things like custom code, hosting and domains until I could confidently offer services that would really benefit clients. I did a lot of free work in the name of learning things too. It was all worth it, because it was an area I wanted to know more about. 

Some of my first websites

7 - Working as an in-house graphic designer

The corporate world was never for me. But the memes and a few cool coworkers got me through it until the anxiety attacks were too obvious to ignore any longer. So I said goodbye to my health insurance and the choke hold of having to be places on time and be constantly criticized, and started taking my freelancing work more seriously. Several of my former coworkers became clients and supported me as I was getting going with my own thing, and that is something I’m still very grateful for. 

8 - Social media management for clients

Admittedly, I was never a big fan of social media, but I use it because I know it’s valuable to business. Doing it for clients paid the rent for several years, and knowing how it works is just one more piece of the puzzle that constructs an entire brand presence. I have since scrapped that offering, and I don’t get it right for my own business sometimes, but doing it taught me that, like most things, effort over time is what gets the results you want. 

9 - I just kept trying

If I thought something might work for me to carve out a little space in the world, I’d try it. I even tried things I knew probably wouldn’t work- as long as I was interested in them it was fair game. It all added up to a valuable perspective. I even gave up on my design business for a few years, but came back because design, creating, and building things for people is just in me to do. I don’t think we can be too proud to keep trying with the things that are meaningful to us. 

10 - My husband

Marrying a man who loves and supports me allowed me to shift out of survival mode and do a little more exploration of my interests and values in a way I couldn’t before. It’s a completely different experience to run a business from excitement instead of fear and desperation. The fear of the unknown has lessened over time as I gain experience too. I’m forever grateful to God for putting me with him; I can’t take the credit for that one. My guy also has an eye for good design, so I occasionally run work and ideas by him to catch things I don’t see when I’ve been staring at it for too long.

And bonus! My design groups. I’m grateful to be a part of a few online communities where we learn and grow together and can swap valuable feedback and experience. Interacting with your fellow design people tends to be where you learn things you didn’t know you needed to know!