If you’re attracting the wrong people with your marketing stick around for some specific tricks for finding the right tone for your brand!


I was acting as a guest expert for my friend’s Photoshop class and one of the entries was a whimsical take on an extreme sporting event (ironing). The concern was that maybe it wasn’t the most ideal portfolio piece for a young designer.

My advice?

Scare the right people away!

When it comes to getting hired, either by a new client or for a position at a new company, differentiation is the name of the game.

Humor and whimsy and showing up authentically as you are is the easiest way to accomplish that. Embodying your expertise acts as a magnet to pull the right people in, and push the wrong ones away.

You WANT to repel some folks because the other side is that you’ll attract the right ones.

What does it mean to “scare the right people away”?

Two words: brand differentiation.

If a brand is what a person thinks about you, then brand differentiation is the unique aspects or characteristics that set it apart from others, in their minds.

So when you scare the right people away, you are actively trying to repel specific people based on data and strategy. That means identifying and emphasizing the distinctive features, attributes, values, or benefits of a brand that make it memorable, desirable, and relevant to your target audience.

How to identify and emphasize what makes your brand unique

Your brand foundation is made up of your messaging, industry knowledge, competitor analysis, positioning, and audience.

Here are some key elements of brand differentiation:

Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

The primary benefit or advantage that your brand offers to customers that competitors do not. This is WHY someone should choose you over another service provider.

Brand Personality

This refers to the human characteristics and traits associated with your brand. It includes your tone of voice, style, and values, all of which help create a connection with people.

Innovation

Differentiating your brand through innovation involves offering new or improved products, services, or solutions that address unmet needs or provide a better experience than what is currently available in the market.

Target Audience

Understanding and targeting a specific niche or segment of the market allows you to tailor your messaging, products, and experiences to meet the unique needs and preferences of your ideal clients.

Storytelling

Sharing compelling narratives and stories about your brand’s origins, values, and mission can help differentiate it by conveying authenticity and credibility.

Design and Visual Identity

Consistent and visually appealing branding elements such as logos, colors, typography, and imagery can help distinguish your brand and stop the scroll.

Client Experience

Providing exceptional client service and creating positive interactions at every touchpoint with your brand can differentiate you from competitors who may offer similar products or services.

Brand differentiation is about creating a distinct and compelling identity for your brand that resonates with your target audience and sets you apart in a meaningful way.

Why should you target a specific audience?

You might have heard this before, but when you speak to all you speak to none.

Knowing exactly who can get the best results from working with you allows you to speak directly to that person. More than that, when you know where they are in the buying journey you can make content that is even more likely to resonate with your target audience and help them decide if working with you is a good idea.

Work with people you want to help, who want your help

By focusing on a specific audience, you can tailor your messaging, products, and services to meet their unique needs, preferences, and pain points.

This increases the likelihood of attracting and retaining loyal clients.

Marketing your brand is easier

It allows you to concentrate your marketing efforts and resources on reaching those who need what you offer which saves you from wasting time with tire kickers and people who are never going to be ready to buy from you.

Targeting a specific audience allows you to streamline your marketing efforts, increase relevance and engagement, differentiate your brand, and build stronger relationships with your customers. By understanding who your ideal customers are and how to reach them effectively, you can position your brand for long-term success in a competitive marketplace.

When should you infuse personality into your brand?

Using your brand’s personality is a deliberate and strategic process.

Here are few ways to incorporate your brand personality into your client journey:

  1. Brand Identity and Visuals: This includes elements such as logo design, color palette, typography, and imagery. For example, if your brand is playful and creative, you might use vibrant colors and whimsical graphics to convey that personality.
  2. Messaging and Tone of Voice: Your brand’s messaging should consistently reflect its personality everywhere (website copy, social media posts, email newsletters, and other marketing materials.) Determine the tone of voice that best represents your brand’s personality—whether it’s casual and conversational, professional and authoritative, or somewhere in between—and use it consistently to connect with your audience.
  3. Customer Interactions: Every interaction with your brand is an opportunity to reinforce its personality and build rapport with customers. This includes interactions with customer service representatives, sales associates, and other staff members, as well as automated communications such as chatbots and email responses. Train your team to embody your brand’s personality in their interactions with customers, creating a cohesive and memorable experience.
  4. Content Creation: Infuse personality into your content marketing efforts by incorporating storytelling, humor, or personal anecdotes that align with your brand’s personality. This could include blog posts, videos, podcasts, social media content, and more. By sharing authentic and relatable content, you can strengthen the emotional connection between your brand and your audience.
  5. Product or Service Offerings: Consider how your brand’s personality can be reflected in the products or services you offer. This might involve adding unique features, packaging designs, or service enhancements that align with your brand’s personality and differentiate you from competitors.
  6. Special Events or Promotions: Use special events, promotions, or campaigns as opportunities to showcase your brand’s personality in a creative and memorable way. Whether it’s hosting a themed event, launching a quirky marketing campaign, or offering limited-edition products, find ways to express your brand’s personality while engaging and delighting your audience.

Overall, infusing personality into your brand should be a continuous and intentional effort, integrated into every aspect of your brand’s identity, communication, and customer experience. By authentically expressing your brand’s personality, you can build stronger connections with your audience and differentiate yourself in a competitive market.

How do you scare the right people away?

Cultivate brand confidence

When I talk about brand confidence, it’s made up of 3 things: messaging + audience + mindset.

First, find the right messaging that highlights the transformational experience you provide and then talk to the exact right person to who is ready to commit to getting those results. Embody your knowledge and expertise, and then consistently talk about and reiterate on your messaging and the stories that set you apart.

This cultivates confidence both in yourself and your ability to market your business as well as the confidence your audience has in your ability to transform.

Use a consistent brand voice.

There are a few ways to fix an inconsistent brand voice but first let’s dig into what that even means.

Your brand voice is determined up your messaging, audience, and positioning.

  1. Messaging: The messages you craft for your brand play a significant role in determining its voice. This includes the tone, style, and language used to communicate with your audience.
  2. Audience: Understanding your audience is crucial in shaping your brand voice. Different folks respond differently to various tones and styles of communication. Your brand voice should resonate with your target audience and appeal to their preferences and values.
  3. Positioning: Your brand’s positioning in the market also influences its voice. Whether you position your brand as authoritative, friendly, innovative, or something else will affect how you communicate with your audience and the voice you adopt.

The thing to remember about finding your brand voice is to USE IT!

Know who you’re speaking to and how you want to present your message your brand voice will come through loud and clear.

Example brand voices for service providers and experts

Want to know if your marketing is scaring the right people away?

Is your brand (message, identity, or experience) attracting the right people and repelling the wrong ones?

For a limited time, I’m offering free brand tips to everyone who joins my list. Send me your name, email, and website or social profile and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours with a custom tip tailored to your brand!

Want to skip the freebie? Apply now to see if you’re a good fit for Brand Magic.

If you’ve been in business long enough, you know being a creative service provider doesn’t often lend itself to waiting for the muse to strike.

We got clients to help and deadlines to meet which is why it’s important to give yourself (and your clients) some structure.

A signature service that takes your entire creative process into account is one way to structure your results but it’s only one part of the equation.

If we get our creative processes in the right position to support that creativity then we can provide more reliable results without wasting time doing things that stifle the muse.

Building the systems to support your creative process allows you to easily scale your services.

I’m doing a training next week where I’m going to go through some strategies you can use to scale your creative passion.

If you want to upgrade your systems and elevate your client experience sign up for updates and I’ll keep you posted on the free training!

“I’m in, send me your link!”

You see those magical words and you are THRILLED that someone new has decided to invest and hire you.

So what happens next?

Do you scramble to create a proposal, create a new invoice, update your contract, and double-check that your intake questionnaire asks for everything you need?

Or do you smoothly send over a link to sign up for your signature service that includes everything they need to officially get started?

…And then what? Do you wing it through the project or do you have a system for delivering on your promises?

If you answered the latter, keep reading!

What does a good client delivery process accomplish?

A good client delivery process will help you scale your creative service business without spending all your time at your desk.

You won’t necessarily be able to automate a lot of your delivery process but just having a system to handle the work can make all the difference in raising your success rates and scaling your business.

Nailing down the steps it takes you to create results will help you:

You probably already have a service delivery process in place in your business, even if it’s just a list of notes and checklists. By working through that process from a high-level perspective instead of while you’re in the weeds, you can formalize your process into a series of Standard Operating Procedures.

If that made your eyes roll into the back of your head from boredom, don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be a rigid system of processes.

In fact, my clients have the most success when they leave room for growth. 

That means your system should be structured enough to keep things organized and fluid enough that you keep using it even when you feel overwhelmed.

What does the customer journey look like for online service providers?

The Constellation of Service

For online service providers like designers, copywriters, and other creative pros your customer journey (or more specifically your client journey) is the series of interactions (aka touchpoints) that a person takes from lead gen to loyalty.

I call this the Constellation of Service. It starts with Awareness, which is from the point that they are first introduced to your brand to when they begin to think you might be the solution to their problems.

Then they move into the Consideration phase and book into your schedule for an audit or discovery call.

Next, they move into the Acquisition phase, where they officially sign on as a client and you begin your onboarding process.

Now it’s time for Fulfillment, which is where you actually do the thing they paid you for, and then hand it over.

Lastly, you have the Loyalty phase where you check in regularly and ensure everything is going smoothly with their new assets and deliverables.

Steal My System

Here is the EXACT Client Journey Map I use to build systems for creatives (I literally copied and pasted it from my Notion database). 

This includes each touchpoint as well as the lists and tags I use to organize the client journey in my CRM.

Client Journey Map for Service Providers

Start Here (Lead Magnet Form)

Book an Audit (15m Appointment Form)

Book a Discovery Call (1hr Appointment Form)

Contract & Invoicing

New Client Welcome (Registration Form)

Client Dashboard

Post-Launch Support

Consider also creating systems for these processes

Logo Concepts

Whether it’s 1 or 3, create a standard document to present the concept(s) to your client. Watermark it with your branding and if you’re providing more than one, number each concept for easy reference.

Brand Boards

Don’t create a brand new layout for each brand board, instead create a standard layout that you can customize. That doesn’t mean you can’t tweak the style for each client, it just means you’re starting from the same well-thought position every time for every client.

Website Prototypes

Depending on the project, your prototype could be as simple as a static mockup you did in Illustrator or it might be an interactive Figma masterpiece. Either way, make a form with a standard list of questions designed to provoke thoughtful feedback so you can eliminate some back and forth and get to building the thing.

File Handoff

Whether exporting a million versions of a logo or teaching a proud new website owner how to log in, you can systemize the handoff process by creating a standard checklist for each deliverable. That way you know you’ve provided everything your client needs, every time.

Testimonial Request

Instead of throwing in an offhanded ask for a testimonial, create a form (bonus points if it automatically outputs to a spreadsheet) and ask questions that prompt valuable feedback that you can use in your marketing. Looking at old testimonials is also an excellent way to combat imposter syndrome.

Business Growth

Measuring and tracking Key Performance Indicators isn’t glamorous but you gotta do it to scale your services. Keep track of your revenue, audience, website visits, and other KPIs in a spreadsheet, and make time to update it weekly or monthly. Make sure to schedule time to do this kind of high-level business work and then create processes for it so you can build consistency in tracking the growth of your business.

What does your tech stack need to include?

Now you need to decide on what tools you want to power your system.

There’s no shortage of options here, so let’s first talk about the basic types of tools you need to research so you can find the best fit for the way you work.

Get a feel for a tool before committing, and ensure it’s the right one for your work style and preferences. The most important thing to remember about your tech stack is that YOU need to be comfortable with it.

Now let’s go over what you need to power an elevated system. I’ve listed my favorites for each category, with short notes on what each does best.

Project Management

A project management tool allows you to keep track of all the moving parts of your business, even if your business a solo affair. 

Content Management System

A content management system is used to house your website content, including your landing pages and other parts of your funnel.

Customer Relationship Manager

A customer relationship management system is for communicating with your leads and clients, and keeping track of each persons unique customer journey.

All-in-One Business Management 

There are also apps that allow you to manage the client journey from a single place, including contracts, invoicing, and project management.

Automation 

Part of the magic of time stacking is having your different platforms and tools work together automatically using webhooks so that your business can work without your constant presense. 

Calendars & Booking 

Automating what happens when a client books a call is also necessary in building a system that saves you time and energy. 

Website Hosting

If you choose to go with WordPress (which I personally recommend) you’ll need a place to host your website. Here’s a comprehensive list of the good, the bad, and the deadly places to host your website. I’ve listed my top 3 here to make it easier.

Full transparency: I am a registered affiliate for Cloudways & FluentCRM, which are tools that power my own businesses. 

How do you ensure the experience stays consistent the whole way through?

Keeping the system on brand

Once you’ve decided on the tools you will use, you need to make sure to keep the system on brand.

If you’re a brand designer, this part is easy because you already have stellar brand guidelines.

For web designers and copywriters, this means you need to make rules for how your branding is used in a style guide.

A style guide helps you keep your system aligned with your brand guidelines, which helps build and maintain trust.

It should include the different variations of your logo, when and how to use them, your color palette, fonts & typography, and the patterns or backgrounds you can use throughout your website and secondary systems. It may also include icons or other elements, or how to speak about your brand.

If you have a lot of colors in your brand, keep your system colors simple so your content, photos, and graphics can show off the rest of the color scheme.

What are some of the benefits of a well-planned system?

A well-planned client fulfillment system helps you scale your creative services by organizing and automating the different processes that keep your business running. 

More time to do what you want

That means instead of drowning in tasks and emails, you have more time and freedom. The freedom to do what you want like spending more time with your family and friends, more time for hobbies, and more time for yourself. 

More time creating demand for your services

It also means having more time to generate demand for your services through social media and other marketing channels. More time to dedicate to growing your business instead of constantly working in your business.

More time for connection

Finding and signing soulmate clients requires more than being a faceless brand. Now you have to connect with your audience in real and meaningful ways, and that takes time. Time that you would have if you organized your systems to take some of the work off your plate.

Need some help?

If you’re struggling to scale your creative services without sacrificing your time (or your spark) it might be time to spend a little time aligning your systems.

This means pulling all of your tools, processes, branding, and website together into a seamless client experience so that you can confidently command premium pricing while being able to take on more dream clients who VALUE YOU and what you do for them.

If you need help with systems in your business but aren’t sure where to start, I offer a free 15-minute Client Journey Audit to assess where your efforts are best spent next. These audits are speedy and full of value for you and best of all, there’s no pressure to buy anything. (Even if you wanted to, there’s nothing for sale on these calls.)

Book your audit now

P.S. After your audit, if you’re curious to find out more about working with me (offers, payment plans, details – etc) – we can hop on a separate call for that, OR you can take what I give you on the Client Journey Audit and implement it yourself!

Remember in Harry Potter, when Hermione takes on a ton of extra work and needs a magical artifact just to stay on top of everything?

Think of time stacking as the muggle version of Hermione’s time-turner.

Consider this Service Systems 101. Magical artifacts not required.

In reality, it’s finding ways to let tech power your processes in ways that work for you so you can scale your creative online service business without sacrificing your time or the quality of your work.

The magic is part planning, part automation, and part heart.

Without it, it’s too easy to fall into the trap of obsessing about your business. Whether it’s tweaking how it runs, how you work, how you sell it, and on and on until your business is an all-consuming monster.

These things tend to show up as:

If any of those issues are showing up for you, let me introduce you to the concept of time stacking and service systems 101.

What is time stacking?

Time stacking is making systems and processes that work for you so you can focus on being in your zone of genius.

It’s easy to go overboard with automation, which can make your clients feel cold and distant rather than like you’ve warmly taken care of them every step of the way.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t stack time in your favor without automating the process to death.

What are some practical applications of time stacking?

So let’s talk about some real-life ways to stack time in your business. After all, time stacking is just a fancy way of saying “systems that work together”.

The best system is always the one you actually use, so it’s important to be intentional in deciding what parts of your process you want to stay hands-on with and what you want to take off your plate.

For online service providers, this looks like mapping out your client journey and making decisions based on where your journey can be hands-off, and where you need to focus your expert eyes.

I call this the Constellation of Service. It’s broken down into 5 stages of steps your client takes through working with you. Each time they interact with you or your content is called a touchpoint.

The five stages are Awareness > Consideration > Acquisition > Fulfillment > Loyalty.

Within those five stages, are a handful of steps. For service providers in general, the steps are:

  1. Lead Generation
  2. Appointment Booking
  3. Onboarding
  4. Service Fulfillment & Client Success
  5. Offboarding
  6. Post-Project Support
  7. Referrals

You can find ways in each step to stack time which will allow you to work more efficiently and consistently recreate success for your clients time after time. Here are a few ways I stack time while building systems for creatives.

Lead Generation

This is the start of the Awareness stage when your ideal person enters your orbit and begins to see you as a knowledgeable source. This step is easy to automate, and people expect there to be a level of separation between themselves and the expert. 

You probably already have a lead magnet available for download, something they can sign up for that automatically gets sent over. This is the first email of your welcome sequence.

A welcome sequence for new subscribers is an easy way to establish trust and demonstrate your expertise right from the start. It should also repel the wrong people at the same time, so be sure to infuse your spirit into the education as well.

IMPLEMENT THIS: New Lead Welcome Sequence

Appointment Booking

This step is where Awareness moves to Consideration, and they begin to believe you could have the solution they need. This is where you begin injecting more personalized interactions and direct communication by inviting someone to book a free audit or discovery call with you, for example. 

Once they go to book their meeting with you, take the opportunity to learn more about their business by asking qualifying questions. 

IMPLEMENT THIS: New Lead Intake Form

Onboarding

Once they’ve decided to move forward and begin working with you, they move into the Acquisition phase. As soon as they ask you to send them your link to pay, you should have an automated onboarding process to make the transition from lead to client seamless.

To do this, you need to package your service up in a standard, repeatable way so you don’t have to customize your proposal for each client. Then it’s just a matter of signing the contract, paying the invoice, and preparing for the next step of working with you.

IMPLEMENT THIS: New Client Welcome Sequence

Service Fulfillment & Client Success

Now it’s time for you to shine as the client moved into the Fulfillment phase. For creative service providers like designers and writers, this is where your zone of genius comes in. It might feel like it’s an impossible thing to turn into a system, but that’s why planning out how you want each project to go is important. It gives you a formal task list that you can use to further decide whether to keep, delegate, or delete.

This phase is probably the most important in the Constellation of Service.

At this point, you’ve made a promise to deliver exceptional work balanced with warm, direct connection and now you need to deliver on that promise.

You do this by creating a system for your zone of genius which ensures your projects are always a success.

IMPLEMENT THIS: Signature Service

Offboarding

After the project is complete, you want to tie everything together with a bow. The offboarding step is another easy one to create systems for, as it tends to deal in file hand over and training. Make a list of deliverables, down to each file type or asset and then write the step-by-step instructions for how to use each deliverable. You can even turn this into a client exclusive training that they automatically get access to after you handover their final files.

Another important step in the offboarding phase is to ask your client for a testimonial. Make this even easier by sending them a form with friendly, conversational questions about what different aspects of working with you was like and then compile their responses into a glowing testimony to your ability.

IMPLEMENT THIS: Testimonial Request Form

Post-Project Support

After you’ve completed the project and offboarded your client, you can extend the experience by offering post-project support. For example, I offer my clients 12 total months of website hosting, maintenance, and tech support via Slack or Messenger. My projects only last 4-5 months from start to launch, so my clients get an extra 6+ months of support from me after their project is live and in the wild.

IMPLEMENT THIS: Project Care Plan

Referrals

One of the biggest benefits of elevating your client experience is increased referrals from happy clients. You can sweeten the prospect by offering a reward for referrals. I love sending finder’s fees through my ambassador program because those are clients I wouldn’t have had at all if not for someone else sending them my way. It always feels like the universe conspired to help us all.

IMPLEMENT THIS: Ambassador Program

What should you watch out for when creating new processes in your business?

There are a lot of different ways to elevate your client journey so be careful to go slowly and make sure each new implementation adds value to your business. 

Like I mentioned before, the best system is the one you actually use, so remember to stay agile when introducing new things to your processes. If something doesn’t work, quit doing it or change it so that it does work. 

Your systems should make your life easier, not more complex. 

That being said, new systems do tend to come with a learning curve. It’s often worth it to stick with it, and figure it out. You may need a mentor or someone to help you through it.

But if you never seem to make it past the curve, then reevaluate your toolkit.

Are You Ready to Stack Time and Elevate Your Client Experience? 

I made a super easy worksheet so that you can quickly audit your client journey and see where you can stack more time in your business. 

Sign up for my email list to get yours now!

This year has been weird.

Lots of change. Lots of healing.

I took some time off this year and had a nice mental break. Figuratively and literally. It wasn’t pretty.

I was spinning my wheels on work I didn’t feel connected to and I did something dumb. I quoted a project for a third of what I needed for it… and then I accepted less than half of it because I needed the cash.

No surprise, my work wasn’t valued, and since I had bent over backward for 100% out-of-scope work TWICE, I just couldn’t bring myself to continue. I had lost thousands in revenue on that one job just because I wasn’t in a position to enforce boundaries around my pricing.

So I fired the client and then I fired myself. And I took a fcking break.

A few things happened.

???? I launched a weird little gift shop.

⚡️ I designed a line of graduation gear for my kiddo’s senior year.

???? And I processed some grief I had around my hysterectomy.

That last one took me to a dark place, and it took a while to crawl out of the hole that my mind likes to dig for me sometimes.

But then, something shifted and I was finally able to reconnect with the heart of my work.

I built my first website when I was 13 because I was the kid that liked to take things apart, figure out how they worked, and then put them back together again.

Viewing my first source code was like that, but instead of a single way to put it back together, the options were limitless.

I had lost that love for building.

The need to keep the lights on and food in the house had trampled over any love I had for my work. And then Nick found himself a whole-ass career.

Suddenly I could operate from a place of security and abundance rather than anxiety and scarcity.

This clarity helped me see 3 things:

#1: I love building simple systems specifically for creative pros that elevate the level of experience they offer their 1:1 service clients.

#2: I love helping people organize their businesses so they can spend more time away from their desks without obsessing over what’s happening in their business.

#3: I am damn good at what I do.

Once I found that clarity, everything started flowing again.

So I revamped my signature offer to focus even more on elevating your systems by crafting a memorable client experience that turns your people into raving fans who can’t wait to share your services.

And after the holidays, I’m doing a free workshop that will help you learn how to map out your client journey (and at the end of the training I’ll work with you to make the most of it).

Hey “Real Designer” – it’s time to add Canva to your toolbox.

I know you might think you don’t need Easy Bake Photoshop but let me show you why I think it’s worth another look. Check out the results of Canva vs. Adobe, it might surprise you!

The Canva Experiment

Let’s back up… to somewhere around 2017. I was working mostly in branding, and I was T.I.R.E.D of explaining why you shouldn’t use a logo that was designed in Canva. (Which is still true – do not design logos in Canva.)

It was a basic app that couldn’t do most things your average branding or marketing professional actually needed. It was new, and it was limited. But it was still super popular, and so often used wrong.

So I had a bad feeling about the app for years. (Me and every other designer at that point!)

It wasn’t until I went through and culled my old blog last year, where I found my screed against using Canva for logos. (Gonna die on this hill, it’s fine, I’m comfy here.)

I wasn’t sure what to do with that post (spoiler: I scrapped it), so I decided I needed to check out what it’s like to use Canva in 2022.

And daaaang.

It does a lot of things right these days.

Last year right before the holidays I changed banks, and in the midst of all of that hullabaloo I forgot to update my Adobe subscription with my new card, so obviously it lapsed.

I’ve been busy rebuilding my entire business from the ground up, and most of my current work is done in browser or in code, so I decided to see how long I could go without Adobe, using only Canva Pro.

And I’m here to report that it was actually NOT very long.

But that’s not the point, because what I learned was that Canva is playing with the big kids now.

The Curse of Legacy Apps

Being a modern app rather than a very, VERY old legacy suite, it definitely understands modern design workflows better. Which means you design faster and get results faster.

Adobe is obviously far more versatile, and is absolutely still required for a lot of things.

But even Adobe has jumped on the Canva bandwagon.

They built one app to compete, killed it when it didn’t, and then redesigned the thing to work even more like Canva.

No doubt, it’s definitely making waves and disrupting the former monolithic Adobe.

Canva vs. Adobe: The Results

Canva vs. Adobe: The Results

Things Canva does better

Things Adobe does better

This list is by no means exhaustive (obviously) but it should give you an idea of which tasks are better suited to which app.

The biggest lesson here when it comes to deciding between Canva vs. Adobe is that Adobe is still the professional standard for designing everything substantial about a brand and that’s not changing anytime soon.

But once you have that strong visual identity established, it’s time to move to using Canva for creating supporting designs.

Your streamlined workflow will thank you.

From banishing scope creep to chasing emails, invoices, and content, sometimes being a designer can be so damn overwhelming.

If you’re struggling to stay on top of everything here are a few tips for designers who want a streamlined workflow so you can scale your business without sacrificing your time.

Make a spare parts file

You know those awesome bits and pieces you accumulate over a brand or web design project that don’t make it to the final round?

No use in them going to waste!

Create a file named Spare Parts – 2022.ai and then just paste in the elements you liked but didn’t use and come back to it.

This file is also good for keeping design elements you use often in a central place.

Start a new file every year to keep it fresh and aligned with your taste and current style.

Keep your task list up to date everyday

Okay, this one seems obvious but if you’re not keeping track of your tasks somewhere then you’re letting stuff fall through the cracks. And just like everything else in life and business, your task list needs to be tended consistently to be of any value.

This is actually one of the few analog processes in my business.

I sit down every night and write out my list for the next day. This process helps me stay on track and make sure things actually get done instead of having mountains of half-completed things languishing about.

I have a few standard categories that I sort my daily tasks into – Morning, Clients, Money, and Tracking.

Anything that didn’t get done during the day gets moved to the next day’s list.

Days when I’m too low to be productive get relabeled with the next working days date, with as much grace as I can manage to give myself.

Establish a file naming convention (and then follow it)

A standardized naming convention makes it easy to find what you’re looking for inside your client folders.

Include relevant identifiers in the name like who it’s for and what deliverable or asset it is.

I use [Client Name] – [Asset Type] – [Version or Set Number].

For example:

ClientWebsite Prototypev1.ai

ClientSquare Ad3.png

Keep your files organized

Structure your client folders in a standard way to keep everything easy to find next time they need an update.

Make a new folder named _New Client (the underscore is so this template folder is always sorted to the top of the list). Under this one, create additional folders for Branding, Internal, Marketing, and Website.

Export assets into folders sorted by file type housed within related sub-categories. These are my subcategories:

Branding

Internal

No sub-folders here. I keep signed proposals and other legal documents here along with any files the client has sent for content or anything else that doesn’t fit in the other folders.

Marketing

Website

Once you have your starter folder made, duplicate it for each new client to save time.

Need help streamlining your service business?

These are just a few tricks to help streamline your design workflow.

If you want to know exactly what you need to do next to scale your business while freeing yourself up to spend more time actually living in the life you’ve built here’s what I have for you –

I do these 15min System Audits. This is a free NO PITCH CALL where I look at your existing systems (website, CRM, PM, emails, or whatever you’ve got) and give you specific insight and feedback on what needs to be optimized in order for you to scale your zone of genius – while freeing up your time.

And then if you want to know more about working with me (offers, payment plans, details, etc.) – we can hop on a separate call for that. OR – you can just take what I give you on the System Audit and implement away. It’s your call.

How to BOTTLE THE MUSE… without losing the SPARK. ????

If you’re struggling to scale your design services without sacrificing your time (or your spark) you might need to spend some time aligning your systems.

This means pulling all of your tools, processes, branding, and website together into a seamless client experience so that you can confidently command premium pricing while being able to take on more dream clients who VALUE YOU and what you do for them.

Filling your system tool belt

First you need to decide on what tools you want to use to power your system.

There’s no shortage of options here, so let’s stick to the basic types of tools you need to research so you can find the best fit for the way you work.

The most important thing to remember about your system tool belt is that YOU need to be comfortable with it. Get a feel for a tool before committing, and make sure it’s the right one for your work style and preferences.

  1. Project Management (Airtable, Clickup, Notion, Trello)
  2. Content Management System (WordPress, Squarespace)
  3. Email Service Provider (Mailerlite, Convert Kit, Active Campaign)
  4. All-in-One Business Management (Dubsado, Honeybook, 17Hats)
  5. Automation (WP Fusion, Zapier, ITTT)
  6. Calendars & Booking (Calendly, Acuity, Amelia)

(no affiliate links)

Keeping the system on brand

Once you’ve decided on the tools you’re going to use, you need to make sure to keep the system on brand.

If you’re a brand designer, this part is easy because you already have stellar brand guidelines in place.

For web designers and devs, this means you need to make rules for how your branding is used in a style guide.

A style guide helps you keep your system aligned to your brand guidelines, which helps build and maintain trust.

It should include the different variations of your logo, when and how to use them, your color palette, fonts & typography, and the patterns or backgrounds you can use throughout your website and secondary systems. It may also include icons or other elements, or how to speak about your brand.

If you have a lot of colors in your brand, keep your system colors simple so your content, photos, and graphics can show off the rest of the color scheme.

The most important thing to remember is consistency. Keep your fonts and colors consistent across platforms, and use the same sizes, weights, and colors for similar items.

Things to think about systemizing

Logo Concepts – Whether its 1 or 3, create a standard document to present the concept(s) to your client. Watermark it with your branding and if you’re providing more than one, number each concept for easy reference.

Brand Board – Don’t create a brand new layout for each brand board, instead create a standard layout that you can customize. That doesn’t mean you can’t tweak the style for each client, it just means you’re starting from the same well-thought position every time for every client.

Website Prototype – Depending on the project, your prototype could be as simple as a static mockup you did in Illustrator or it might be an interactive Figma masterpiece. Either way, make a form with a standard list of questions designed to provoke thoughtful feedback so you can eliminate some back and forth and get to building the thing.

File Handoff – Whether it’s exporting a million versions of a logo or teaching a proud new website owner how to log in you can systemize the handoff process by creating a standard checklist to follow for each deliverable. That way you know you’ve provided everything your client needs, every time.

Testimonial Request – Instead of throwing in an offhanded ask for a testimonial, create a form (bonus points if it automatically outputs to a spreadsheet) and ask questions that prompts valuable feedback that you can use in your marketing. Looking at old testimonials is also an excellent way to combat imposter syndrome.

Business Growth – Measuring and tracking Key Performance Indicators isn’t glamorous but you gotta do it to scale your services. Keep track of your revenue, audience, website visits, and other KPI in a spreadsheet, and make time to update it weekly or monthly. Make sure to schedule time to do this kind of high level business work and then create processes for it so you can build consistency into tracking the growth of your business.

Need some help deciding what to systemize next?

I do free, 15 minute System Audits.

This is a NO PITCH call on zoom – where I look at your existing systems (website, CRM, PM, emails, or whatever you’ve got) and give YOU very specific insight and feedback on what needs to be upgraded in order for you to systemize your zone of genius.

And then if you are curious to find out more about working with me (offers, payment plans, details – etc) – we can hop on a separate call for that or you can just take what I give you on the Systems Audit and implement away.

Hey Designer –

I get it, your zone of genius lies in creativity and pulling a vision out of thin air that can represent entire empires.

What you do feels like magic, and bottling the muse seems silly to suggest, even impossible.

But I promise, you CAN distill that into a repeatable, scalable process.

You probably already have a signature service…

Even if it’s just a checklist you follow for each client, or a list of deliverables everyone gets in the end.

You’re doing the same stuff every time, even if the results are a UNIQUE representation of your client’s audience and offers.

The difference between stressing about sending endless emails, follow-ups, admin tasks and the other crap that keeps you from your real work…

and scaling your signature service without sacrificing your time…

is by automating as much of the process as possible.

And to do that you need to get clear on the steps the power the process.

Not just onboarding new clients with welcome pages and then winging it the rest of the way.

But creating systems and processes for the entire service period from client fulfillment, to offboarding, support, and every other (repeatable) step along the way.

If “systems and processes” makes your eyes glaze over, maybe you need someone to help implement so that you can do more of the stuff you love.

Book a free (NO PITCH) 15min Systems Audit to get your customize next-step strategy.

Celebrating free time is something we have elevated to an art form in my family, and I wanted to share a little about what our weekends look like.

One of the best things about business ownership is getting to be really intentional about the way you spend your time.

And if you’re doing it right, that means deciding how to spend your free time too.

I’m a mom with a teenager and a toddler at home, so between that and my business, free time is pretty sacred to me.

I love both of those aspects of my life, but I also love solitude.

As an introvert, I CRAVE it.

Ever since 2020, we’ve all been at home full time. Nick, Aralyn, Jack, and I all occupying our tiny 2 bedroom home day in and day out.

I know we’re blessed in many ways to be able to just stay home.

I know my perspective is incredibly privileged.

It’s just not an option for so many people.

But being surrounded by people 24/7 (even my most beloved people) is EXHAUSTING.

And knowing I have a day to myself gets me through the week sometimes.

It is what it is.

But being able to build free time into my schedule has only been possible because of the systems I have in place, and the boundaries I put around how my time is spent.

Not just my time, either.

Nick takes care of the house and day to day running of the family.

He deserves time off.

Aralyn is on track to graduate early and babysits.

She deserves time off.

So we came up with Family Free Weekends.

The idea is that we each get a full day off. Free of responsibilities and schedules.

No cooking.

No cleaning.

No chores.

No work.

You stay up late, sleep in, and then binge whatever book, show, or video game your heart desires.

You hang out with the family if you want.

Or… you revert into a hermit and no one sees you all day.

It’s YOUR (glorious) free day.

To be able to swing a 3 day weekend every week requires a lot of forethought and planning in my business.

Because my day off is Friday.

And yeah, I love the hell out of what I do so it’s tempting to work anyway.

BUT NO WORKING ON YOUR DAY OFF!

Because if I work, even on passion projects, then I don’t get a day off at all.

So I had to reinforce this boundary with myself more than anyone.

Which means you can’t reach me on Friday.

I’m OOO.

This caller is not available.

I’m off saving the world in Thedas or scavenging in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (playing Dragon Age or Fallout).

And when my day off is over?

I’m refreshed.

I’m excited.

I had a chance to miss my family, miss my routine.

And so I appreciate it all even more.

So maybe you’re in a similar “always surrounded” position and are wondering how to broach this topic with your own family but you’re not sure how to say it without sounding like an asshole?

It helps if you have open communication lines to begin with, so you can tell your partner you need a break from them and the fam without them taking it personally.

And yeah, they might take it personally.

But when you come at it from a place of partnership, “I deserve time off and so do you” it’s going to land differently.

Another thing to consider is that it does change the workload for everyone involved.

If all of your kids are very young, you may not be up for an entire day of single parenting. Your partner may not be. Nick and I are lucky that Aralyn is here to help with Jack.

Once you get in the swing of things, you’ll see that having a system for your family to prioritize each individual by dedicating an entire day to their recuperation and mental health is worth the extra work so they can have a free day.

And what if you’re always surrounded but haven’t figured out the systems side of your business to even be able to take time off?

I can help with that too.

I do these Free, 15-Min System Audits for 1:1/DFY service providers. There is NO PITCH (not a sales call!) – where I look at your existing systems (website, CRM, PM, emails, or whatever you’ve currently got going) and give you a customized next-step strategy to scale your services so that you can create more free time in your life.

And then if you are curious to find out more about working with me (offers, payment plans, details – etc) – we can hop on a separate call for that.

OR – you can just take what I give you on the Systems Audit and implement away.

Branding that captivates vanishing attention spans.

Are you next?