It’s a funny story when you think about it… at the beginning of our careers, all we do is personal work as we have no clients. Then, when the clients start to roll in, we stop doing personal work as we don’t have the time.
BUT THEN… because we have not been working on our personal stuff, clients with better budgets think our work and website are average and don’t want to pay us what we are worth. Ipso facto, having clients is a blessing and a curse—haha!
By investing a lot of time in following my design heroes Lincoln Design Co, I knew from an early stage that being in constant development of my own brand was going to be an essential part of growing my empire… I needed to make it happen, no matter what.
So today, I want to give you THREE actionable tips that I implement into my world every day. Working on yourself and your brand can become like muscle memory—before long, it will just become a part of who you are.
NO.1 – SHIFT YOUR MINDSET
Your best work should not be saved for clients… it should be saved for you! You have the opportunity to create the best possible brand for yourself with no one telling you what to do.
This effort does not go unnoticed; all of my biggest paying clients have committed to me because they have seen what I have built with my personal brand and agency. They see the effort I have put into building and marketing myself online and know I will place that much effort into their business.
My biggest seller is not my work; it is the work I put into my own brand, and that’s what gets me the work in the first place.
NO.2 – MAKE IT A DAILY HABIT
Whether it’s replying to some comments on social media or building a new website, every single day, I am doing something to push my personal brand forward.
The best way to implement this is to build it into my daily routine. Each day is split up into sections;
Work on them / Work on me / Work on the future.
Monday to Friday looks like this;
8 am – 2 pm = Client work
2 pm – 4 pm = Personal brand development
4 pm – 8 pm = Client calls / creative coaching / world-building
Yes!!! this is a long day… But it works for me, and as I balance two worlds right now in my personal brand and agency, it is the only way to get it all done… and I have big things to achieve.
NO.3 – ASK FOR HELP
I will tell you this as honestly as I can! If you try and do it all by yourself, then you will do nothing well! Or, if you try and do it all by yourself, then many important things will not get given enough time to be done right.
I know what I am good at… I also know what I am not so good at. Just because you can do it does not mean you should. This is something I focus on when building my brand assets.
I can illustrate stuff, but I am not the best, and I want my illustrations to look as cool as possible. So, I reach out to the best illustrators I know who can execute the style I want, and I pay them to work on my brand assets.
I have worked with Lincoln Design Co, Kiel Tillman, Hefty Design Co, Boring Friends and many others to bring my brand to life. I have always been a big believer in supporting the creative community, so by investing in other designers to help me realise my dream brand, I have created a brand that supports me and my family.
This gives me more time to do what I am the best at! You have to invest back into your business to keep it evolving and relevant.
I hope this blog sparks some ideas and shifts your priorities somewhat. Your most powerful asset is you—that asset needs to be the best project you have ever worked on.
HAVE A BRILLIANT DAY
MBJ
P.S If you want to work on your logo creation process and consistently come up with brilliant ideas, be sure to grab THE LOGO LEGENDS COURSE HERE
P.P.S. If your looking for somewhere to start and need a bit of a reset – grab my FREE course here: LET’S FOOKIN FOCUS – A FREE MBJ COURSE
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