Better: The Brand Designer Podcast

When it comes to creative work such as brand design and website design, it is important to keep in mind the end user's perspective. After all, they are the ones who will be interacting with the final product. In this episode, Esther shares some tips for taking customers' and clients' points of view and needs into consideration to create the best result for them. We do this by resear...

This week Jen chats with Jen Wagner, a type designer - and the conversation was incredible. We went totally off-script and talked through some really personal things. Jen shares her story and recent experience with burnout, we chat about culture shifts we’re noticing in the independent designer industry, and then we talk through how to get started in font design and what that looks like for Jen W....

As we build our businesses, we find that we’re constantly monitoring and evaluating our models, as well as taking into account the lessons we learn along the way in order to expand into the higher levels of success and growth we desire. In this episode we’re talking about two very separate things that work closely together: Boundaries and Expansion. We’ve found that you FIRST need boundaries in or...

Anyone ever been afraid of looking at their books? This week Jen pulled back the curtain on her business expenses. She goes over what the last few years of running Hello June have looked like financially, trends she’s noticed, goals she’s had, mistakes she’s made, and things she’s doing now to help her business stay lean and profitable. Links Mentioned: Profit First Gusto - payroll & taxes Ado...

We’ve been taught to think that being multi-passionate means we’re not good at any one thing, lack focus, and are easily distracted. BUT THAT’S JUST NOT TRUE. Being multi-passionate means you’re curious, interesting, driven to learn, excited about life & being creative. In this episode we talk about what it means to be multi-passionate, how to celebrate and honor you many creative ideas, how t...

As designers, it is our job to deliver designs to our clients that are unique, ground-breaking, and ultimately: worth remembering. We are bombarded with brands, website, ads, day in and day out. But how many of those brands stick out to you? Very few! As you’re designing, it’s important to keep that in mind and work towards being the brand that sticks out. In this episode Esther talks about her 4...

Today Adrienne Johnston joins Jen to talk all about how she generates 5+ leads per week WITHOUT doing active content marketing! This was such an interesting and insightful conversation all about using the power of simple, effortless SEO shifts to start capturing leads that may not have been aware of you. Guest Information: Guest Name: Adrienne Johnston Guest Business Name: Adrienne Johnston Guest...

If you guys are as curious as we were about adding design intensives into your offer suite, this episode is the one-stop-shop guide you’ve been looking for! We go through who intensives work best for, the pros and cons of offering them, and best practices for pitching and selling them to clients. We also go through some of the mistakes we’ve made when offering intensives - and what we’ve learned a...

Ever wanted your business and life to feel simpler and easier? This week Jen goes over one of her biggest values - simplicity - and how she lives out that value in her design work, business, and her life. She’s always saying, “Let it be easy,” and hopes that this episode feels like a breath of fresh air and an invitation to a more spacious business and life. Links Mentioned: Paula Scher Citibank S...

Fungi Dube is a creative solopreneur and ardent Pan-Africanist Brand, Visual, and Webflow Web Designer who is passionate about elevating African narratives through modern design and cultivating Afro-positive sentiments. Her work is heavily influenced by the profound nuances that are embedded in African cultures, likes the use of patterns, textures, historical writings, graphic symbols, and color a...

Happy 2023 and welcome to Season 7! Esther and Jen recap their holiday breaks, talk about their goals for 2023, and discuss new changes for Season 7 and what to expect. Can’t wait to have you guys along for the ride! Special thanks to our producer Jon from Wayfare Recording Co. Connect With Us: Our Free Facebook Community Our Website Our Resources Page Podcast Instagram Support us on Patreon Our p...

There are a couple things that we learned the hard way - and we want to help you avoid those mistakes! We chat through client communication errors we’ve made, our philosophy on hiring, standing up for yourself, and weathering the ups and downs of business. We’re curious - what’s one lesson you learned the hard way in your business? Inbox Question: "How do you develop your identity and visibil...

This episode was so wonderful to listen back to! We hope you enjoy. We will be back with Season 7 on January 24th! Brand strategy is the foundation upon which meaningful brand identity design lives. It's important for brand designers to understand the "why" behind brand strategy so they can use it to improve their design work and sell it to their clients as a package with design or...

This From the Archives episode is all about getting paid on time and ensuring things don’t get lost in the black hole that is the internet: Payments are all about communication and being assertive Late fees/things to include in your contract Timelines for payments (Giselle recommended 7 days — I agree!) How to protect your work - before payments have processed Even if you have a barter or discount...

This episode was so wonderful to listen back to! We hope you enjoy it. We will be back with Season 7 on January 24th! In this solo episode, Giselle opens up about why and how she launched a digital course. What seems like a couple of months of preparation for the course was really three years in the making. Giselle spills it all to encourage those that dream about making digital products but hold...

This From the Archives episode is chocked full of knowledge from Avani Miriyala, Giselle’s business coach. In the episode Avani, Jen, and Giselle talk about: Leveling up mentally to be the person you need to be to serve your clients the best Falling back in love with learning Fixed mindset vs. growth mindset How to take time to invest in yourself Imperfect action is better than no action; do somet...

It’s our final episode of Season 6 and we’re answering your burning questions! Listen to hear your questions about client processes, brand design, business, and more! Some of our questions include: “What is the best way to have clients get their content to you before you start a project?” — Annalie Chernin “What is the best way to communicate to a client as an introvert?” — Eden Synundu “How do I...

Everyone wants to attract the right clients and easily sell high-ticket services - but when was the last time you reviewed what was on your services page? This week Jen chats with Kelsey McCormick from Coming Up Roses all about her journey from climbing the ranks in the music industry to running a brand and web studio, and how Kelsey developed a framework specifically for crafting services pages t...

This week we turn the tables as Jen interviews Esther and her husband, Jake, about how Jake has played many roles in her business — as a spouse, partner, support system, cheerleader, quality control, and accountant… among MANY others. Jake shares some of the challenges associated with supporting a partner who runs her own business, and how they worked through them together. They also talk about th...

Happy Thanksgiving! In this special episode, we wanted to get personal and share things that we’re grateful for this year both personally and professionally! Spoiler: lots of love fest moments. We also talk about things we’ve learned this past year and then flip it on its head to how we’re moving forward and setting goals for next year. Stay till the end to hear some of the questions we use to che...

Have you ever wondered how you could grow your design revenue without spending hours chained to your desk or taking on more clients than you can handle and hiring a huge team? This is the question of the hour for a lot of you - and we’re SO excited to welcome Bonnie Bakhtiari from B is for Bonnie Design to chat about how to earn more while working less! We discuss pricing, sales, offer suite, slow...

This week we chat all things positioning with Liz Cholhan from Highlo Designs - what it means, how to craft yours, and how positioning can impact your business (not only by helping you attract and book higher-ticket/higher-value clients, but also by finding that soul-aligning feeling of clarity in who you are and who you serve). Liz has been running her business for over 10 years, and shares in th...

Ever been confused about whether you’re using the right website platform for your studio and your clients? We’re breaking it ALL down today with pros and cons lists for the major websites platforms we see boutique design studios using: Squarespace, Showit, Shopify, Webflow, Wordpress, and Wix. There’s no “wrong” or “right” here (although we know designers have a LOT of opinions!) We’re just here t...

We’ve never seen this shared publicly before… we’re pulling back the curtain in today’s episode to share the audio from actual client presentations from our studios! We watched each other’s Strategy/Creative Direction videos and then reacted live to them - noting what we loved about them and making some really juicy suggestions for making them even better. We hope that this episode inspires you to...

It’s officially SPOOOOKY szn around here and we wanted to get a little festive. We had our listeners (you guys!) anonymously submit your scariest/most difficult client stories and we read them, react to them, and listen to what they learned from the experience. We truly believe that difficult client experiences are one of the hardest parts of running a design business, but this episode serves to r...