00:00:13:23 - 00:00:36:01 Unknown Welcom back to Creavo Caast, my name is Jake Van Ness and I'm here with Carl today. How you doing, Carl? Morning, Jake. I'm doing pretty well. It's been, it's been a week. You know, mentally, I'm just. I've got the Swiss cheese brain today. Yeah. So it was funny when you were taking notes earlier that you actually wrote down Rookie Designer, which is our old podcast that we haven't done in quite a while, but I totally understand how that is. 00:00:36:01 - 00:00:59:05 Unknown It is definitely been a crazy week, but let's start with what your homework was. So your homework was to figure out how to use a CRM, because last week we talked about the CRM that I'm currently using, which is less annoying CRM. So let us know how is that going? It's going pretty good. Thank you for the link. 00:00:59:05 - 00:01:30:06 Unknown I now have 60 days and I've got 56 days left. I've started adding clients that are just individual contacts and then it's nice how A categorizes the company. So if you work with bigger organizations, you can get a lot more contacts within that one organization. So I'm finding it easy to use. I'd love it if I could pull in, say, my client base from my web apps, which I use for my invoicing, but I don't think there's an automated way to do that. 00:01:30:06 - 00:01:50:19 Unknown So I'm doing it manually, and I'm realizing I need to reach out to certain people that I haven't talked to in a while. Like you said, you were like, okay, I'm finding I need to follow up with people. You can actually set tasks. And then the other thing is you want to set it up so that it will send you an email on the morning of everything you have going on. 00:01:50:20 - 00:02:10:02 Unknown So it'll send you a list of what those tasks are that you need to do. It will send you a if you link your calendar to it, which I recommend, it will send you an email. It says, okay, you've got this virtual session going on, or you have this design meeting going on and it's really cool. You get that first thing in the morning, and it's a great way to be able to review that. 00:02:10:04 - 00:02:27:00 Unknown But more importantly, the whole point of a CRM is to make sure that you're keeping track of who you're talking to and what you're following up. And so it gives you that summary. So you could say, okay, I need to take a half hour today and follow up with these people, because I've already set those tasks to make sure that I do that. 00:02:27:03 - 00:02:43:22 Unknown So I'm glad you're using it. Feel free to ask me questions. Let me know if you're having trouble with anything. I've used it for quite a while, but I know there's a lot more that I could do with it, and I need to be better about using it. But you'll find the best thing you can do, especially if you're doing like one on ones. 00:02:43:22 - 00:03:08:04 Unknown And things like that is, have it open and put the notes right in a CRM as you're having that one on one, it's great for that. And then the other thing is I like emailing. So if you use zoom and you use the zoom summary, email that summary to that clients contact, and then that way you have that there and you say, okay, this is the meeting and this is the summary that the AI in zoom already has given me. 00:03:08:09 - 00:03:26:10 Unknown So there's a lot of the little things like that that you'll learn, you can do with it and you can use it more. But the biggest thing is setting those follow up tasks so, you know, to go back in and talk to those people and set them up. Even if it's 30 days, set them up because you'll forget, and then it'll pop up in that summary email and you'd be like, oh yeah, I do need to do that. 00:03:26:10 - 00:03:45:25 Unknown So glad you're using that. Glad you get your homework. Get us a reminder. We'll have that link again in the show notes today for this episode. If you sign up using that, what that does is it gives you an extended free trial from 30 days to 60 days. And full disclosure, it is kind of like an affiliate link. 00:03:45:25 - 00:04:06:10 Unknown If you use that link and you do end up signing up, it will give me a month free on my subscription. So just so that full transparency on that, how's everything else going? Also, let's give them a link to web apps. Yeah, I don't believe web App as an affiliate program. So just look up web apps.com, but we'll leave a link for that. 00:04:06:10 - 00:04:28:02 Unknown It's how I do my invoicing. Super easy. Yeah. And you actually got me doing it that way too. And it's super easy to use. It's super easy to get paid and it's a great service. And I've been really, really happy with it as opposed to some of these other ones where you have to pay a monthly fee and they're overly complicated, I think sometimes, and we talked about it a little bit last time. 00:04:28:04 - 00:04:48:19 Unknown I think sometimes people decide new softwares and they try to make it all these bells and whistles and and they forget that some of us, especially as solopreneurs, as people who are just doing business by ourselves, we don't need this gigantic software that do all of these millions of things. We don't have time to learn that, and we don't have time to use something like that. 00:04:48:24 - 00:05:14:18 Unknown So it's same as LA. CRM wave apps is super simple, it's super pared down, and it's really easy to use, so we'll definitely include a link to that as well. This week we were going to talk about mindset and imposter syndrome. So something that came up recently is Carl and I were talking about the marketing we're doing for our businesses, the portfolio pieces we're putting out and things like that. 00:05:14:24 - 00:05:56:04 Unknown And then we also got a little on the subject talking about like how long we've been doing this and and looking back at some of the work we've done many, many, many years ago. And so why don't you share with them kind of the conversation that we had around your concerns with mindset in imposter syndrome. Sure. So I've been a designer now for about 21 years, and, you know, that path has been it's a bit of a journey, but it's one that you work with different clients who work within different systems, and you gain a style a bit and you don't want you don't want to be pigeonholed, but you kind of develop over time. 00:05:56:04 - 00:06:19:25 Unknown And there's always that doubt that self-doubt about, you know, have you chose the right career? Have you learned the right tasks, the right tools, and how to apply them to your clients? And then the whole mindset of launching your own business that that's where you're, you know, you're really having to put your money on the table and say, I can do this for myself. 00:06:19:25 - 00:06:46:25 Unknown I don't have to wait on the paycheck from someone else. So I, you know, I launched my business about eight years ago, and that was based off mentorship from you and from everyone that I knew in my band. I, group I was excited to get started. Now, here we are eight years later, and I'm trying to expand my influence locally, gain more clients locally, not just relying on the big corporate type accounts. 00:06:46:28 - 00:07:10:09 Unknown And I have to create that presence. So I've been pulling together my portfolio on my Instagram. It's going to be integrated into my website eventually, but I kind of have looked at my visual journey, and I'm proud to say that I'm a pretty accomplished designer now. I've got several awards from GDD USA. Last year I got one, got one couple years previous and even before that. 00:07:10:09 - 00:07:32:16 Unknown So I'm proud of those pieces. And then there's the other work that I've done and it's helped these businesses, create a brand, a story for what their business means. And so when I, when I look at other designers, we're really more of a friendly field. We don't really compete head to head. We look to match with clients that we can best serve. 00:07:32:18 - 00:07:55:15 Unknown So if I, I look to network with other graphic designers, because if I can't do the work that my client needs, I'd like to refer them. And then that comparison. Sometimes you feel like you just can't match up. You don't know. You know, the typography that you do may not be as solid as some other designers, or they talk about personas for their clients. 00:07:55:15 - 00:08:21:10 Unknown You know, they they have a very different approach than I do. And then I realize I've still been doing this eight years. You know, a lot of businesses fail long before that. So I think I, one of the designers I chatted with said, stop comparing yourself to outside designers, compare yourself to your own work and make sure you're fulfilling the work that you're doing, the work that fulfills your interests. 00:08:21:13 - 00:08:46:27 Unknown So that's where I feel like my mindset is to serve my clients the best I can, pursue the niches that I am strong in, and then develop where I can with new clients that are a bit of a stretch, but not promising what I can't deliver. So I think it's really interesting how you're talking about how sometimes we compare ourselves to other designers, and we feel like we don't have certain skill sets. 00:08:46:27 - 00:09:08:29 Unknown A perfect example is I am not a letter artist and nor are you, and we had that conversation where we're like, man, you watch some of these people and the designs that they come out with for logos and branding, and the lettering they can do is absolutely amazing. Man, do I do. I have the ability with my branding and my logo design work to live up to that. 00:09:09:01 - 00:09:29:25 Unknown And I think one of the things we have to remember is everybody has imposter syndrome at some point. I think that's something if you if you say you don't, I'm going to call you out on that because I can almost guarantee at some point you did, whether it was very early on in your career and you were just starting out, or it's later in your career, at some point you do. 00:09:30:01 - 00:10:01:02 Unknown But what we need to remember is that a specific niche for somebody and like I, I'm a print designer. I came out of the printing industry. I specifically work with print design. I'm not a web designer. I'm not a coder. I'm not a web developer. I'm not an app developer. I'm a print designer. And so I have a skillset that's really around how to do layout well, how to make take Parker look good when you're doing a layout, how to balance images like, that's my skill set. 00:10:01:02 - 00:10:23:16 Unknown And yes, I look at somebody even like you when I look at some of your branding and I'm like, man, like that is not that's not something one that I enjoy doing for the most part, but it's also not something I'm really great at. And sometimes I feel that too, like I feel that imposter syndrome of man, I wish I could draw better, I wish I could create branding better. 00:10:23:16 - 00:10:55:11 Unknown And again, I have to realize that my knife is print design. My niche is doing every door direct postcard for my clients. My niece is doing like newspaper layout, magazine layout, those kinds of things because that's where I honed my skills. Now, that doesn't mean that as our careers go, that we can't hone different skills and we can't become better at doing branding or better at doing logo design, or maybe learn how to do some lettering. 00:10:55:13 - 00:11:14:27 Unknown But we just need to stop being so hard on ourselves. I think the other thing, when it comes to being a designer, and I think we've talked about this in previous episodes and we will definitely continue to talk about it, is you don't have to be a generalist. You don't have to know everything. There's no way to do that. 00:11:14:27 - 00:11:45:14 Unknown You can't know everything. You can't be great at everything. And I think that's where you and I are really good at networking and referring to other people and bringing people into our network to help our clients in areas that we're not proficient in. And so I think having the mindset to be okay with that and okay with bringing people in and say, okay, this is your skill set, this is your knife, I'm going to lean on you to help my client with this specific part of the project. 00:11:45:21 - 00:12:14:21 Unknown I agree, and you know, it is a skill to know what you don't know. And not everyone is that self-aware. So what we've done, and I guess you might call this a bit of a commercial for what we're doing. We've launched our collaboration, creative. A collaboration is all about conversations that spark collaboration, and we know our gaps. We know the skills that we either don't have, as you know, print designers and we partner up with people that we trust and have known for years. 00:12:14:24 - 00:12:36:26 Unknown So we've got a web designer in our pocket, we've got marketing people in SEO, and we're trying to be able to serve our clients as a agency can, but also to bounce ideas off one another and bring our expertise, because the mindset is less about shoveling and all the work that comes in and just trying to be saying yes to everyone. 00:12:36:28 - 00:12:58:04 Unknown And then our mindset is more, who can we work with to get the best product and not overburden ourselves, especially with, you know, web design. Something I have very little to no interest in. But I know people that that do that work. So I work with them and I create the layouts and then they execute on that for me. 00:12:58:06 - 00:13:19:23 Unknown Yeah. And again, I, I think the mindset of not being afraid to share, we talked about that when we first started 20 years ago. A cool story is we met on the graphic design forum. Some of you that are younger are going to be like, what's the forum? I guess the easiest way to describe it is it's what is now like Facebook groups is kind of what that was. 00:13:19:23 - 00:13:53:27 Unknown We met there many, many, many years ago, and there was this mentality of, this is my work and I'm not sharing it, or this is just my logo and it's the best in the world, and you can't touch it like you can't be compared to it. And I think as time has gone on and as we've gotten older and our businesses and matured, we've seen that the relationships that we built, that the people that we still keep in touch with, like us, like Tony, and like other people that we met at the Graphic Design forum. 00:13:53:29 - 00:14:24:06 Unknown As we've matured, so of our so does our mindset around we can't do it all ourselves. We are definitely not the best in the world, and we also built those friendships based on a common thing, which was creative agency, creative spaces and creative work. So why not share that and enjoy it with each other rather than being in this hoarding mindset of no, no, no, I can't share this, this is only mine. 00:14:24:12 - 00:14:48:10 Unknown I'm the best. I think that's that's such a it's such an immature mindset, I think and and I think that's why it does change over time that people realize that they need to have other people around them. And that's why even if you look at large agencies, they're wanting there's not just one guy. It does branding, but there's also not just one guy that's running around doing everything. 00:14:48:13 - 00:15:14:00 Unknown There are departments that handle different things. And as a solopreneur, we need to realize that we are an army of one, but we cannot do it all ourselves. And so having a combination of a very open mindset that says, I'm willing to collaborate with people, and avoiding the imposter syndrome of I'm not good enough to collaborate with people, feel confident in what you do. 00:15:14:00 - 00:15:37:10 Unknown And I think what you said, I want to go back to what you said that designer told you, stop looking at everybody else and look at what you did five years ago. Look at what you did ten years ago, and look at the progression of your work. And has it gotten better? I can almost guarantee it has. You do get better at what you do, and you do learn things as you go. 00:15:37:16 - 00:16:03:06 Unknown So look back at that stuff like, it's funny, I was going back through my old stuff that I have on my server and I was like, wow, I won. I have done a ton of different things, a ton of different projects. But to some of this stuff was awful when I started compared to where I am now. And so you have to be in a mindset of growth, a mindset of I am getting better. 00:16:03:12 - 00:16:29:23 Unknown Rather than a mindset of imposter syndrome, but realize that imposter syndrome happens when you feel that way. Take a step back, talk to other designers, talk to other business owners, and just be honest and say, I'm feeling this extra pressure right now that I may not be good enough. Now we're both business owners. We've both been doing this for a while. 00:16:29:26 - 00:16:54:04 Unknown We both wake up some mornings and go, why am I doing this to myself? But we have to remember and this is a mindset thing to remember why you're doing it. Remember why you love being a designer. Remember why you love being a creator. Remember why you love being a business owner. Those are the things that can get you through the humps of. 00:16:54:04 - 00:17:14:09 Unknown I got all these invoices that I got to take care of or oh, I got all this paperwork I got to take care of or when this is coming out. Oh, I got those freaking taxes to deal with all the things that really make business suck sometimes. But remember why you do it. So I'm going to ask you in a second what the big reason is for you. 00:17:14:16 - 00:17:40:20 Unknown But for me, it has always been about time freedom. I work for somebody for three and a half years, and that gentleman pulled the rug out from under me. He took my livelihood away from me and I decided. I looked in the mirror and I said, that's never happening to me again. And I'm never letting somebody else control or my income control my time and control my life like that. 00:17:40:22 - 00:18:02:26 Unknown And since then, I've never looked back. And that was in 2010. So I've been doing this for almost 15 years and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Now there are days that I can, I just want to crawl back in bed and say, I don't have a business, and we're going to pretend that isn't my life. But most days I really, really do enjoy what I do. 00:18:02:26 - 00:18:29:24 Unknown And I really do enjoy the freedom that this gives me. So for you, what is your big reason as to why you're in business? So now it is for me it is the flexibility of running the business. But it all started, when I was working with companies and, you know, my title was Graphic designer. My, the amount of time I was doing design work was 25%. 00:18:29:27 - 00:18:58:15 Unknown The rest of it was handling mail, sending out the stuff that we printed or, you know, doing some of the hand skills of cutting, various pieces that couldn't be de cut. So when, when I realized that my time was not in the things I loved, but rather spending time in meetings where we were talking about the work rather than doing or, you know, initiatives that didn't have much to do with me as a designer. 00:18:58:17 - 00:19:22:21 Unknown I wasn't managing anyone, so I didn't really have to do that. I was spending more time on social media during the day to burn hours, basically, like just to get through the day, just socializing with the team versus actually doing the work. So I realized I'm a bad employee, but I could be a good contractor. There's there's a podcast I listened to years ago, and I know it's probably still around. 00:19:22:23 - 00:19:46:17 Unknown We're what we call unemployable. We are not good employees. We are unemployable. So go ahead, keep going. Yeah. Unless unless I was working with an agency that needed my skills a lot more then, you know, I could I could work with them. But at this point, the time works out, right, because I help manage the house. You know, I help do pick up for my kids and a drop off. 00:19:46:17 - 00:20:11:21 Unknown And I'm a dad as much as I am a designer these days. Yeah, yeah. In that time, flexibility is invaluable. The other aspect was, I love variety of work. You know, whether I'm doing a participant guide for training, a presentation plan for a virtual training, or I'm doing a food truck design, I get this big scope of work that I'm doing across different industries and whatnot, and that's what I love. 00:20:11:24 - 00:20:33:06 Unknown Maybe it's ADHD, maybe it's just I like to compartmentalize my projects. I don't know, I just love hearing other people talk about their business and applying that to the work that I do. That's awesome. So for somebody that is suffering from imposter syndrome, what are three things that you would recommend to them that they do to break out of that? 00:20:33:08 - 00:20:56:25 Unknown First off, step away and if you're this is more for the imposter syndrome of the mid-career person, step away and look at what you've done. Look at the comments that people have given you, whether it's through job reviews or, you know, Google reviews, something like that. You'll see your believers, the people that refer you are the ones that you can go to. 00:20:56:25 - 00:21:28:20 Unknown And, you know, I'm kind of down on my business and, you know, I feel down about what did I do to help you that made made you successful, you know, ask for more testimonials. Some of that ego boost is essential. Also that stepping away, putting a gap between, you know, the screen and just getting out there and actually walking about or, you know, go fishing, do something that's a hobby because I feel like the imposter syndrome might actually be like similar to the idea of depression. 00:21:28:20 - 00:21:47:10 Unknown Maybe it's just your levels of certain hormones are off that day, or you're dealing with headed towards burnout, and we start doubting ourselves and we start having that imposter syndrome. Yeah, it's a great idea to to step away, go do something else. Obviously you have to come back and deal with it, but take that time and get outside. 00:21:47:10 - 00:22:16:03 Unknown Get away from the computer, get away from your phone or go read. Go sit under a tree, go fishing. Like you said, those are great things. So what's one more thing that you would recommend? I would look for mentorship. I would look for someone that's been in the field longer, or someone that is experienced and maybe either experienced in the field that I'm have as an itch to see if their experience is very similar to mine, because maybe that particular industry is having trouble. 00:22:16:03 - 00:22:43:11 Unknown Or I would look for a mentor that's got several years of experience. Some time to give me feedback and, you know, talk process through. And, you know, because I found mentorship was one thing that pushed me over the edge into running my own business. I had you as a mentor. I had my friends and B and I, and I had the people that left the my old company who referred business to me enough, enough that that I could launch my own business. 00:22:43:13 - 00:23:17:20 Unknown Yeah, yeah. That's excellent. I agree about the mentorship because I think sometimes we get so wrapped around the axle of what we're trying to deal with that just having somebody listen and go, hey, have you thought of this? How many times do we sit there and go, that seems kind of obvious. But again, we get so wrapped around the axle with what we're doing, whether it's a project or whether it's our business, just having somebody who is kind of outside of the business to talk to. 00:23:17:22 - 00:23:36:12 Unknown And that's what's interesting, even with you and I, we do a lot of the same things. But just to be able to bounce ideas off of each other and have somebody go, hey, have you thought about this? And how many times do we sit there and go, no, but I should have. And I don't know why I didn't think of that, but thank you. 00:23:36:15 - 00:23:56:21 Unknown And so having friends that are in the industry can help. Having mentors that are maybe in a different style of business, or dealing with a business coach who may be able to deal with the overall picture of things, not specifically design or creative agency, but would be able to say, okay, business wise, are you thinking about these things? 00:23:56:26 - 00:24:20:01 Unknown And I have a mentor that I rely heavily on that's been great for me for that. And and that's the one where sometimes you go, man, I'm just so in it, so deep in it that I just can't think of how to deal with this problem. So that that's a that's another great tip. That's awesome. Well, or coming to the end of the show, we talked about how we're going to do this from now on. 00:24:20:01 - 00:24:47:18 Unknown So I have our next pick from Pot decks. And this week we're actually going to do would you rather. And so we're going to pull from this deck this week. Would you rather pull a tooth with a pair of pliers or brand yourself with a cattle prod. My. So what is your answer to that one? I wish I had cards against him humane to respond, I know. 00:24:47:18 - 00:25:13:23 Unknown Yeah. So it's kind of, question of do you want internal or external mutilation? Teeth can be replaced. I not, I mean, right, they can be replaced. That cattle prod is going to be forever. That is true. And I had not thought about it that way. That is really interesting. Now, building up the courage to pull my own tooth. 00:25:13:23 - 00:25:38:12 Unknown That'll take some time and lubrication. Yes, yes. Yeah. So it's funny because I said I think cattle prod, I think of Yellowstone and the TV show and I won't do any spoilers, but there is some graphic stuff that happens with cattle prods in that show. And you're right, I would have to agree with you. Like hockey players knock their teeth out, they can get them replaced. 00:25:38:14 - 00:26:01:03 Unknown You could I don't know I can I was you two. I don't know that I could pull it out myself, but I know I couldn't brand myself. So it's kind of like I don't think I could do either one of these. But I have to agree with you. If I had to, I'd rather lose a tooth and be able to replace that than have something that's branded on me that probably isn't what I want there. 00:26:01:03 - 00:26:26:12 Unknown So, I mean, my logo might be an interesting brand. That's true. Get a giant holy carp. But somewhere. So. All right. So that's that's that was crazy. That was our question from pot decks. And it was from the deck. Would you rather it's their red deck that I purchased. So again we will be doing those at the end of each episode as we finish up. 00:26:26:14 - 00:26:44:23 Unknown So that's going to be our episode for today. Remember you can find us on all of the podcast apps. You can find us on Spotify, on Apple, anywhere you find your podcast. Also, if you're watching this on YouTube, please give us a like. If you want to know when the new episodes come out, be sure to hit that notification bell. 00:26:44:26 - 00:26:54:19 Unknown And if you haven't, please subscribe and we'd really appreciate that. And again, hopefully everybody has a great week and we will talk to you next week at career Vodcast.