Designer Boss
Designer Boss
Kat made $10k this month!
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Welcome to the designer boss podcast, listen, learn, love and level up with the ultimate success guide for web and graphic designers.
0:17
My name is Anna Dower. I'm a cake lover and success slaying graphic design mentor.
0:23
And I'm Emma Kate your personal sensei for mastering the wonderful world of the Web.
0:30
Together, we'll show you how to harness our tried and tested experiences and hard-earned lessons while you soak up everything we know about building a successful design business.
0:47
Hello, welcome to the designer boss podcast. It's Anna here I'm joined by Emma.
Hi everyone. And we also have another guest we have the lovely Kat Potter who is here on the couch with us in our professional recording studio. under the blankets. We're on a bit of a design of vacay together and we roped Kat in to having a bit of a chat with us.
1:14
Kat is a bit scared. But she'll be fine. Great talk with microphone. Yes. Yes. Sorry. Introduce yourself Kat. Yeah, I'm Kat Potter from Little Black Kat Creative. I am a graphic designer / illustrator. And yeah, I recently made full time doing just little blackcap in September last year. So is that nine? Nine or so? Months? 9-10 months? Yeah. And before that, what were you doing? Free press and graphic designer printers. So I spent about 18 years working for printers. Aside the most boring design work.Yeah, like fixing other designers artwork every day. So we can actually print from it.
2:08
That's pretty dry. And if someone was to go to your website now and see what you do now, it's like the complete opposite of that. So I'm like just gonna hit you with questions. Like, why did you do it for so long? In the beginning, sort of initially, it was like it was a job and I needed a job and I had family, kids. And I was happy just working the you know, the nine to five or whatever it was, and just doing the boring work because I had my family that I I guess did all the fun stuff. I didn't love arty stuff with my kids. So I guess that was my creative outlet. And then as the kids got older, and I used to make more money. and it wasn't really fulfilling me anymore. I started working, you know, on the side for myself on weekends and nights. And it just grew, I suppose. And to the point that I started hating my part time day job, which is awful. I work with lovely people. I just hated the work. Yeah, I had to do something a bit more more creative. So yeah, I worked at it and worked . Lots of long nights and it eventually became enough to I guess it wasn't enough to quit the job initially, but I thought I have to otherwise it's never gonna go anywhere. I just had to sort of bite the bullet I guess I had to make sure I had the savings ready to go. So I was ready to everything was sort of lined up. I had my you know, I my procedures, my systems, everything was in place. I just had to let go.
3:43
And, and see how it went. And I you know, I could always get another job if it didn't turn out. But yeah, so far, so good. Yeah, no, that's awesome. I don't know why it's so hard to let go. You know, I think it's hard for everyone to just make the decision that, you know, I'm gonna go out on my own now. It is scary. It was, it took a long time. It did I remember, but um, you did it. It was so exciting handing in that letter. I think I just had a bad day, like a really bad day at work. And I'm like, stop it. I'm gonna, I'm gonna just write. I'm just gonna write a resignation letter to make me feel better.
4:25
And I write the letter and just wrote it. And that was it. I typed it up, signed it. Talk to my husband about it. I told my colleague, look what I've just written. And he's like, does that make you feel better? And then the next day after, obviously, I didn't just hand it in straightaway. Next day, I sort of slept on it and went, Yeah, wanna hand that letter in, if I didn't write the letter just to vent, I probably wouldn't have had the you don't I mean, it was like that little thing just to.
4:58
Send you over the edge.
4:59
Yeah! Even though. That's right it for me. It was like, Oh, well, I'm going to. It helped. Yeah.
5:16
Yeah. And was your family supportive?
5:18
Yes. They were really supportive. I didn't think they were going to be. I don't know why.
5:20
Yeah. Probably your own fear.
5:21
Yeah. Well, my dad worked for himself forever as a tradee. So he was always like, it's hard working for yourself, and you don't get holidays, you don't get sick pay and all that sort of stuff. So I was, like, I had the fear put into me that it was not a good thing.But he was so he's so excited that I am working for myself now, which is weird.
5:38
And I was unexpected, unexpected, but I think he'd be proud of me, no matter what I did, he's, yeah, when I told mom, she's like, like, like, I don't know why I didn't do it sooner.
5:53
Thanks Mom!
5:56
That was good. And the husband was supportive, too. He was telling me to do it for a long time. He's like, when are you going to do it? just do it.
6:00
And I love that you have such a niche, like your style is obviously your niche. If you take out Kat’s website, I love the fact that your business is booming, and you have that really specific niche. I just, I guess I sort of developed a certain sort of illustrated, illustrative style, like my illustrations, obviously. But I like to bring that into my design, too. And I guessI liked drawing that way. So I made that into my niche style, sort of, yeah, I've got customers who sort of businesses who target families, young people, beautiful sort of feel. You know, it works for their business, the bright, colorful illustrations that, you know.
6:52
yeah. And they come to you, and they know what they can get. Like, it's not a surprise. And I think so many more designers need to do that. Like, if you end up with people that are difficult, chances are you didn't make it clear what they're coming to you for. Yeah. And I think you've made a really clear, like, this is what you're gonna get when you hire me as a designer.
7:15
And if someone comes to me and says, I, you know, I want this drawing this way, and they'll show me like, their inspiration pictures and stuff. I'll look at it. I will I don't feel that way. Yes, I'm probably not going to do it properly. I just can't. It's like handwriting. It's like, that's how that's how you write. That's how I draw. I can't change it. Yeah. I mean, definitely do change it to suit when it comes to illustrating for brands, because you've got to add that bit to it. So it's different. So it looks like that brand. You're not a main line, when it comes to branding, for sorry, branding illustrator, illustrating for brands, but it is sort of still very similar, like my styles.
7:58
Yeah, yeah, it's painted with your brush, which I think is really important. And we were talking about, like, the last these last couple of days, we've been talking about all the things design related. And one of the things that we've been talking about is how we're constantly learning. Like, with every client, we're still learning.And I think it's important to tell everyone that so they know it's okay, you know, we're all still learning each client, each job. And like you said, you've been doing your business for nine months now, what's been the biggest thing that you've learned?
8:34
The proposal or the contract? There's so much you've got to put into it. Everything's got to be like, T's crossed and specific. So if you're not specific,
8:46
then you'll get caught out.
8:50
when I haven't been specific in, in things. And, you know, I felt like, well, I can't charge the client for that, because I didn't specify whether that was included or not. And I didn't maybe explain that this is what this is, and sort of things. So I felt like that's on me, then. So then I've got to like, suck it up and, and do it. So.
9:14
Yeah, I think that's normal. I think it's like really healthy as well, to see it as learning not necessarily like just people being difficult. People aren't difficult for no reason. Well, mostly not.
9:25
Like the whole, you know, design, illustration branding. It's, it's a new thing for them to hire you, so they don't know. And we talk a whole new language, like different language, how we, I mean, that's a business they have their own their own lingo. So it's different.
9:45
Yeah, yeah. And yeah, you can't communicate enough guys.
9:51
I'll just add to that, because I was one of those people that rather than having a contract within the first five, six months, or nine months of my career, like you have your freelancing gig, It took me years like You know, I was one of those people that thought, Oh, if I have a big contract that's just going to turn people off, and, you know, they're not going to want to work with me. And so I got, I was one of those people that got burned 2 million times, you know, like I didn't have they didn't specify this, I didn't specify that. And, you know, and I still do to this day, add new things to my contract sometimes. Because there, there's always, you know, something little that you maybe you've missed, and that would, you know, make it easier next time.
10:28
But what I discovered after I started sort of having contracts in my business, is that it actually, rather than deter clients, it will deter the wrong kind of clients for you, yes, the ones that are going to want to screw you over, it will deter them, which is what you want to do you want to deter those people. But the people that are just genuine and like you said, it's the first time they've hired a designer or an illustrator, and they're a bit weary about what's included, and what the process is, and all that. Having a contract that stipulates all that and your timelines and what's expected and all that, that makes them feel more comfortable, makes you look more professional, makes everything run a lot smoother. And make sure you get paid in the end, essentially, and everyone's happy. So I think that's a, I think it's awesome that you've implemented it so early on in your freelancing gig.
11:20
Yeah, and know that it's like, fluid, keep adding stuff. Each time you encounter someone who's a pain in the ass, like, include something in your contract to make sure it never happens again. That's what I do every time. Yeah. So hopefully one day you get that? Oh. Dream Client
11:41
Pretty much all Ah, yeah. You know, yeah. They you've forgotten to communicate, basically. Yeah. And I know that you've just recently celebrated your best month this month. Yes. Talk about that. How did you get there?
11:58
I've just hit my, my first $10,000 in sales, which is something I've never done before. And something everyone sort of aims for, I guess, when they're, you know, starting out? How did I get that? I don't know, really, there wasn't like a, like a straight path to get there was a lot of up and down and turn around. And yeah, I did. I did a lot of late nights, I'll be honest, I did have done a lot of late nights. But then I work around my kids too. So I might not do a full day I'll do you know, a half a day and a little bit at night. So.
12:36
But I also think, like, it's probably easier for me on the outside to see how you did it. Like, I feel like you're the kind of person that takes things on board. Like, I know, I've worked with lots of different designers over the years. And some people just don't want to learn how to do things differently, like learn new stuff.
13:00
They don't want to do the work. Yeah. And I feel like you do you always take on board information, advice from other people, and you really do it.
13:14
Yeah. People who know what they're doing, for sure. I did your course as you know, and I've also done Emma’s course. But I've done other courses too. Yeah, so I've, I've worked with other Yeah, I guess mentors or people as well.
13:30
But you chose to invest in yourself, which is like a big thing in itself. In order to, like level up. A lot of people kind of just expect it to happen. Like, oh, I'm sitting at my desk from nine to five Why isn't are happening? Like you have to be really proactive about it. And I think you have been.
13:50
Yeah, no, I like I guess a lot of what I sort of did was the daytime work was working on client work and nighttime work. It felt better to work at night if I was working on my stuff. So I was didn't feel like I was working it felt like I was at nighttime. I was building the business. And at daytime I was working and so that's sort of how I I guess I did it. I did a lot of night and yeah, that was Yeah, makes sense.And it was it was fun to me but yeah, it's really lame. It's been fun to you know, put it all together and see it grow.
14:32
It is fine. Yeah, love seeing it.
14:35
Just we bought you with like all the things that you've listed there you like I don't know how I did it but that's how you did it. You know like you decided that you really wanted to like obviously focus on Pete like a niche and people that you like clients that you really, you know, you put yourself out there you're authentic and your branding and your website and your particular style. So you've attracted people. Clients that really like that. And so it's more enjoyable for you to work with them. Obviously, rather than designing for businesses like really corporate or something that's like really beige, like, and you just want these bright, fun, vibrant jobs, so that you've worked really hard. And unfortunately, that's just kind of when you start out, you kind of have to just put in the hours you do, you have to work hard, but you were intentional about it. And I think that's a huge thing, you can just sit there nine to five, or even like, seven to seven, you know, like you can do big hours. But if you just want to punch out the work, or you're not being intentional about what you actually want to generate in your business, then you're just going to put in the hours and it's not going to come in, you're better off doing a few hours of really intentional work, it's so much more valuable to just do a few hours and be like, This is what my goal is, I'm going to, you know, do a newsletter to my clients, or I'm going to do some really strategic Facebook posts, or I'm going to rebuild my website to make it like exactly reflect what I want to, you know, the packages, I want to offer all that kind of stuff. And you sort of like the opposite to me starting out because I was just one of those people that was really hesitant to invest in my business. And myself, it took many years to realize that.
16:23
And I just thought, well, I'll just do the hours and you know, it'll pay off. Flack, and it just, it doesn't like I you know, I didn't do too badly to begin with, I would you know and have enough money coming in and stuff. But it was for cheap clients and doing boring work. And like, it just wasn't rewarding. And I also didn't feel like I was growing as a designer, either. I felt like the stuff I was doing was really just boring and not me. So I can see what you've done in such a short period of time like to hit your first over 10k month in nine months.
17:03
I know this whole time like it's different. Yeah. It's just just incredible.
17:10
And I know the kind of questions designers would ask, if I said, you know, I made 10k.
In my design business in a month, the questions I will ask is, where did you find your clients? And it's not an easy question to answer. Because it's like, lots of things.
17:32
They come to me yes, that they come to me becaus they find my website, and they can relate to everything that they see on it. And they're like, you're like a lot of them when they do talk to me. They're like, I've seen your website, and you're exactly what we want. Yeah. Or I've been following you on Instagram. And you know, I love your style, or I got your newsletter. And actually one lady, she's like, I usually delete all my newsletters, but I claim yours because I liked it. And I'm like, wow, I didn't know anyone, right? Yeah, so all of that stuff together. And with a brand that is you and you know everything that's
18:06
It all adds up. And I know you talk specifically to your audience, you really try to solve their problems. Offer them solutions, like on your social media, blog posts, newsletters, you basically like do all the things I tell you to do.
18:31
She does all my work.
18:34
It's funny, because I think a couple of times you said Don't get angry at me, but But it's kind of good to have that kind of someone that keeps you accountable. Because I'm the same with my website and Emma. I'm like, oh my god, Emma's gonna get so angry at me. If she sees this image size.
18:56
Do you know what I mean? It's like having that fairy godmother. I'm kind of watching you.
19:05
Yeah, so what's next? Are you gonna just keep going? What's the goal?
19:11
Because I like what I'm doing now. But eventually, I think we were talking about it last night after a couple of mines.
19:21
Yeah, I would like to, like my, I want to work more on the illustration side of things. And I would love to eventually, you know, move into textiles and products and things like that. And, yeah, you know, like, have my own collection and it does or you know, but yeah, that's something that I'd always love to do. Whether or not I can do that both at the same time. I don't know.
19:50
But no, that's awesome. I hope this podcast experience hasn't been too scary for you. And how would it feel if other designers were looking up to you, because I'm pretty sure there's a whole bunch that are now.
20:08
I don't know that. I cant believe it.
20:10
What advice would you give to someone who's kind of torn in that shitty space of working the day job and army and iring about going out on their own, I guess if you're hated J job that much, and you really want to make, like, make it happen, then you will like, you'll make it happen. You just have to put the time in. You know, I was doing the days and the nights. So it's, it is a lot of hard work. But if it's something you want and enjoy, but it doesn't, it didn't feel like hard work. Doesn't do what and it works. So just keep at it because it's it's worth it. It's amazing the freedom that you have when you finally are on your own.
21:00
Yeah, I mean, look at us, in the middle of the week, EBI, Airbnb.Yeah, living the life.
No, it's so good. I'm so glad we could chat and we could hear about your business journey.
21:10
Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah.
21:15
Sorry. Thanks for everyone listening, if you did enjoy this podcast, or you know, anyone who might find it valuable, maybe you've got a design a friend who's maybe wondering, you know, if they can continue doing their freelance stuff or wanting to go out on their own, and please share it with them. And please leave us a review. It's the best way for people to find us. So if you can leave us a review on iTunes or your podcasting app, if you can leave reviews on other places, I don't even know.
21:40
But whatever. Just like leave good, good comments everywhere. That'd be awesome. And if you're interested in finding out more about our next summit coming up in October, our designer boss summit 3.0 please head to our website designerboss.co
and put your name on the waitlist so we can keep you in the loop with everything that's going on.
22:08
You've been listening to the designer boss podcast with Anna Dower and Emma Kate. If you'd like to learn more about us and our upcoming digital summit for graphic and web designers, head to our website designerboss.co