Philip VanDusen - The #1 Unicorn Skill For Creative Professionals
08/30/21 • 18 min
Writing is the #1 unicorn skill that will advance your career faster and make it stronger as a creative professional.
I talk about:
● How so much creative work relies on writing and good communication
● My experience of finishing my first course — Brand Strategy 101 and how that helped me realize that copywriting and the ability to capture nuances in copy is important in strategy
● Achieving massive success as a creative pro by developing a unification of both design and writing skills
● The Top 3 skills designers need outside of creative abilities and how being a good copywriter leverages those skills further
● The biggest red flag when it comes to communicating that may be causing projects to be turned down
● Why you should learn to articulate what you do, verbally present your work, and get your point across
● “Content is king” philosophy and the need to leverage being a content creator in today’s competitive world
● Building credibility as someone who knows what they’re talking about and can articulate it well
● Writing as a career advancement insurance as you rise up the ranks in your career
● How to be a better writer, why deadlines are motivating, and the 10,000-hour rule that applies to writing
● Resources that will help your writing skills improve
While it’s imperative as a creative professional that you get better at writing, you don’t have to do it alone. Take a course, read a blog, and start putting it to practice. What’s important is you just start.
Mentioned in this episode:
My Brand Strategy 101 course: https://www.branddesignmasters.com/brandstrategy101-sales
Grammarly Writing Assistant: https://www.grammarly.com/
LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/
SkillPath Professional Development: https://skillpath.com/
Skillshare Online Learning: https://www.skillshare.com/
The Write Life blog: https://thewritelife.com/
Write to Done blog: https://writetodone.com/
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
VISIT MY WEBSITE:
http://www.philipvandusen.com
JOIN THE BRAND•MUSE NEWSLETTER:
http://www.philipvandusen.com/muse
JOIN THE BRAND DESIGN MASTERS FACEBOOK GROUP:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/branddesignmasters/
SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
http://www.youtube.com/c/PhilipVanDusen
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/philipvandusen
FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST:
https://www.pinterest.com/philipvandusen
LIKE MY AGENCY ON FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/verhaalbranddesign
Bring Your Own Laptop - Adobe Training with Daniel Scott
https://www.byol.me/philip
InVideo
https://bdmpodcast.com/invideo
Discount Code: “PHILIP50”
Tubebuddy
https://wwwtubebuddy.com/philipvandusen
____________________________
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
Writing is the #1 unicorn skill that will advance your career faster and make it stronger as a creative professional.
I talk about:
● How so much creative work relies on writing and good communication
● My experience of finishing my first course — Brand Strategy 101 and how that helped me realize that copywriting and the ability to capture nuances in copy is important in strategy
● Achieving massive success as a creative pro by developing a unification of both design and writing skills
● The Top 3 skills designers need outside of creative abilities and how being a good copywriter leverages those skills further
● The biggest red flag when it comes to communicating that may be causing projects to be turned down
● Why you should learn to articulate what you do, verbally present your work, and get your point across
● “Content is king” philosophy and the need to leverage being a content creator in today’s competitive world
● Building credibility as someone who knows what they’re talking about and can articulate it well
● Writing as a career advancement insurance as you rise up the ranks in your career
● How to be a better writer, why deadlines are motivating, and the 10,000-hour rule that applies to writing
● Resources that will help your writing skills improve
While it’s imperative as a creative professional that you get better at writing, you don’t have to do it alone. Take a course, read a blog, and start putting it to practice. What’s important is you just start.
Mentioned in this episode:
My Brand Strategy 101 course: https://www.branddesignmasters.com/brandstrategy101-sales
Grammarly Writing Assistant: https://www.grammarly.com/
LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/
SkillPath Professional Development: https://skillpath.com/
Skillshare Online Learning: https://www.skillshare.com/
The Write Life blog: https://thewritelife.com/
Write to Done blog: https://writetodone.com/
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
VISIT MY WEBSITE:
http://www.philipvandusen.com
JOIN THE BRAND•MUSE NEWSLETTER:
http://www.philipvandusen.com/muse
JOIN THE BRAND DESIGN MASTERS FACEBOOK GROUP:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/branddesignmasters/
SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
http://www.youtube.com/c/PhilipVanDusen
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/philipvandusen
FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST:
https://www.pinterest.com/philipvandusen
LIKE MY AGENCY ON FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/verhaalbranddesign
Bring Your Own Laptop - Adobe Training with Daniel Scott
https://www.byol.me/philip
InVideo
https://bdmpodcast.com/invideo
Discount Code: “PHILIP50”
Tubebuddy
https://wwwtubebuddy.com/philipvandusen
____________________________
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
Previous Episode
Omar Farook - Adapting A Refine Mantra in Branding and the Tech Space
In the branding space, it’s common knowledge and even canon to set up a solid market-centric brand strategy first before launching a product or service.
This episode’s guest begs to differ.
We discuss:
● His stepping stone into entrepreneurship as a creative at core
● Why the Amazon FBA model is the easiest to understand and how it gives creative professionals an advantage in the marketplace
● Using his experiences as an Amazon seller to identify problems in the system that he now solves through Glorify
● Patterning Glorify after the Nathan Latka model for having a successful million dollar SaaS company
● How he used the psychology of the buyer and principles of motion picture to help over 15 Amazon businesses reach 7-figure revenues
● Why he believes tech startups should follow the “launch first, brand later” philosophy
● The perfect rebranding case study: Instagram
● His career trajectory, mentors, and heavy influences to his career
● His refine mantra and relentless persistence that keep him going
● Why he doesn’t believe in competition
● How underdogs move faster than slow-moving titans and three examples of startups that achieved massive growth in recent years
● Battling narcissism by valuing emotional intelligence
Mentioned in this episode:
Aaron Draplin: http://draplin.com/
Clickup: https://clickup.com/
Design: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80237097
Design Inspiration App Muzli: https://muz.li/
Gary Vee: https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/
Ian Spalter’s Digital Product Design episode on the Netflix Documentary Abstract: The Art of
Nathan Latka: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanlatka/
Razer: https://www.razer.com/
Tenzing: https://tenzingnaturalenergy.com/
Tom Bilyeu’s Impact Theory Podcast: https://impacttheory.com/episodes/
Connect with Omar here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omar-farook-1a9bb612b
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omarnfarook
For more information on Glorify, head on over to these channels:
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/glorifydesign
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glorify.app
Website: https://www.glorify.com/
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
VISIT MY WEBSITE:http://www.philipvandusen.com
JOIN THE BRAND•MUSE NEWSLETTER: http://www.philipvandusen.com/muse
JOIN THE BRAND DESIGN MASTERS FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/branddesignmasters/
SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL:http://www.youtube.com/c/PhilipVanDusen
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER:https://twitter.com/philipvandusen
FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST:https://www.pinterest.com/philipvandusen
LIKE MY AGENCY ON FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/verhaalbranddesign
Bring Your Own Laptop - Adobe Training with Daniel Scotthttps://www.byol.me/philip
InVideo
https://bdmpodcast.com/invideo
Discount Code: “PHILIP50”
Tubebuddyhttps://wwwtubebuddy.com/philipvandusen
____________________________
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative e...
Next Episode
Michael Janda - The Relationship Game: Building Real Personal Brand Connections
Michael Janda is an award-winning Creative Director, agency veteran, and author. He founded Riser, his own creative agency, which boasts high profile clients such as Google, Warner Brothers, FOX, NBC, National Geographic, and Disney.
We talk about:
● Having things you can be known for: the story of his thing with bobbleheads
● His career trajectory: from building a successful website that generated 10 million worth of venture capitalist seed money, to getting his computer as his last pay, to landing a Creative Director job at FOX, and how he eventually lost it all after the 9/11 catastrophe
● What he did to pivot his career after all that and how he eventually decided to build his own agency
● The Relationship Game: how he got freelance gigs from connections from his old positions and previous colleagues who went on to work for new companies
● The logical move to Salt Lake City from LA that allowed him to offer more affordable prices while being in a setup that was more conducive to remote work
● What he means when he says Riser was the #1 third bid option for the entertainment industry
● His book "Burn Your Portfolio" and why he felt he needed to write it
● How he feels about soft skills and why being the best designer isn’t good enough
● A speaking engagement in Moscow that awakened an impostor syndrome moment for him which led to his leap to becoming a content creator
● His Instagram that’s a poster child of great visual branding
● His private coaching service and why he thinks creative entrepreneurs need confidence most these days
● His personal manifesto of succeeding through real relationships and adding value to people’s lives one person at a time
Mentioned in this episode:
Burn Your Portfolio by Michael Janda: https://www.amazon.com/Burn-Your-Portfolio-design-school/dp/0321918681
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: https://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034
To connect with Michael, head on over to his channels:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morejanda/
Website: https://michaeljanda.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/morejanda/
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
VISIT MY WEBSITE:
http://www.philipvandusen.com
JOIN THE BRAND•MUSE NEWSLETTER:
http://www.philipvandusen.com/muse
JOIN THE BRAND DESIGN MASTERS FACEBOOK GROUP:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/branddesignmasters
SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL:http://www.youtube.com/c/PhilipVanDusen
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER:https://twitter.com/philipvandusen
FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST:https://www.pinterest.com/philipvandusen
LIKE MY AGENCY ON FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/verhaalbranddesign
Bring Your Own Laptop - Adobe Training with Daniel Scott
https://www.byol.me/philip
InVideohttps://bdmpodcast.com/invideo
Discount Code: “PHILIP50”
Tubebuddyhttps://wwwtubebuddy.com/philipvandusen
____________________________
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
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