02: Misconceptions about being a designer

05/16/17 • 21 min

In today’s podcast, Zack and I speak about the misconceptions surrounding being a designer. We’ve been doing this for a while now and we’ve created a pretty good list of these misconceptions.

So what’s the takeaway from the podcast? Being a designer is awesome. We both love it. We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love the work.

But, it should be known that design can be a demanding, frustrating, exciting, thankless, and amazing career.

Take the hard times, failures, and mistakes and turn them into opportunities to become better.

Show Notes

1:19 Being a designer can be glamorous, but it rarely works out that way. It’s a lot of long hours and hard work, but it usually pays off in the end.
6:08 Not every client is going to love your work, but this should lead you to areas of growth and will show you the opportunities to learn and become a better designer.
8:08
We have never blown a client out of any water source. We do not recommend this.
8:23 You will never see the portfolio pieces that we don’t want you to see. Sorry, Charlie.
12:30 Clients usually know that they need SOMETHING, but it’s your job as a designer to help the client SEE what they want. Talk with them, get a detailed brief, and find out what the client is looking for and what they like before beginning.
15:19 Tommy Bronx is an awesome artist.
17:00 Your clients have money. You’re performing a service. You need to make sure you get paid. And, get paid what you’re worth.
20:24 FACT: Every customer is not a good customer. Learn this. It will change your life as a designer.

We recorded this podcast at a local Thai place: Fresh Bowl. It’s one of our favorites and it has a great menu, atmosphere, and staff.

In today’s podcast, Zack and I speak about the misconceptions surrounding being a designer. We’ve been doing this for a while now and we’ve created a pretty good list of these misconceptions.

So what’s the takeaway from the podcast? Being a designer is awesome. We both love it. We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love the work.

But, it should be known that design can be a demanding, frustrating, exciting, thankless, and amazing career.

Take the hard times, failures, and mistakes and turn them into opportunities to become better.

Show Notes

1:19 Being a designer can be glamorous, but it rarely works out that way. It’s a lot of long hours and hard work, but it usually pays off in the end.
6:08 Not every client is going to love your work, but this should lead you to areas of growth and will show you the opportunities to learn and become a better designer.
8:08
We have never blown a client out of any water source. We do not recommend this.
8:23 You will never see the portfolio pieces that we don’t want you to see. Sorry, Charlie.
12:30 Clients usually know that they need SOMETHING, but it’s your job as a designer to help the client SEE what they want. Talk with them, get a detailed brief, and find out what the client is looking for and what they like before beginning.
15:19 Tommy Bronx is an awesome artist.
17:00 Your clients have money. You’re performing a service. You need to make sure you get paid. And, get paid what you’re worth.
20:24 FACT: Every customer is not a good customer. Learn this. It will change your life as a designer.

We recorded this podcast at a local Thai place: Fresh Bowl. It’s one of our favorites and it has a great menu, atmosphere, and staff.

Previous Episode

01: 10 Steps to Explosive Facebook Growth

In today’s podcast, Jason and I speak about our latest ebook: “10 Steps to Explosive Facebook Growth.” This ebook was born as a case study from Jason’s experience as social media manager for a brand. His experience there took that brand from 7,000 Facebook fans to over 120,000. Wow!

During this podcast, we only cover a few of the steps you need in order to see real growth in your Facebook marketing efforts. We believe that everyone can have explosive growth from their Facebook account if just simply apply these 10 simple, easy to follow steps.

Please provide your name and email address for your free download.

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Show Notes

- - 2:11
The ebook is broken up into three phases; doing the prep work (know your brand, know your audience, set goals, and define your budget), establishing best practices (start local, engage engage engage, make it fun, develop brand ambassadors, and keep it fresh), and getting to work (promote posts and run ad campaigns).
- - 3:32
First area we are focusing on today is setting goals. You can measure your success if you don’t know your goals. You can’t hit a target if you don’t know what the target is.
- - 10:48
Knowing your audience, you would think, would be easy, but you would be surprised at how many people don’t actually know their audience. I am talking about know, KNOW your audience. What are their interests? Where are they hanging out? (you also will hear Jason do a little shoutout to Notorious B.I.G.)
- - 16:23
Our blog on A/Z testing.
- - 16:38
Old news isn’t news, it’s history. It’s important that you keep your content fresh. This is done by hiring a great photographer, hire great interns (pay them), and set an effect content calendar.

We recorded this podcast at a Marlow’s Tavern in Duluth, GA. Great atmosphere, great menu, and we recommend the chickpea fries.

Next Episode

03: Marketing to Lazy Consumers

In this podcast, we discuss how to market to the current generation of consumers: the lazy ones.

As you’ll hear in the show, we’re not talking about the typical type of lazy that most people think of when they hear the work. In this sense of the word, we position the current breed of a consumer as unwilling to put effort into trying to interact with your brand and more importantly, your website.

This is an expanded conversation based on the blog we wrote last year. Snag that article here.

Enjoy!