The Pros & Cons of Girl Boss Culture

Episode Transcription Season 3 Chapter 4

Have you ever felt stuck or uninspired staring at a blank page as designers? It is literally our job to be constantly inspired and be creative on demand, which can be really overwhelming. I know because I’ve been there feeling like my last good idea was my last good idea on Brandy. See. I’ve been designing for over 20 years.

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Welcome to design speaks. We’re here to empower you to unlock your own. Operations. So you can take control of your creativity. I’m your host. Brandy C joining me is my cohost Julie Hyder this week. We’re going to be talking about the truth on girl boss culture. So stay tuned for that coming up later in the show.

Good morning, Julie. Hi, Randy, how are you today? Good. So I’m really excited to talk about today’s topic. There’s definitely this idea that women and boss’ culture is like this sort of glorious, glowing, shiny thing. And I don’t know if you know this, but I never wanted to own my own business. Have I told you this before?

I think so. Yeah. Yeah. So I grew up with a dad who, who owned his own business. He has a small business, he’s a custom home builder and I grew up sort of swearing. I would never do that. I don’t want my own business. I see him dealing with taxes and client invoices. And so when did that change? I want to talk about that today.

And. What kinds of things did I need to understand or do I wish I could have understood about being, not only an entrepreneur, but a female entrepreneur. And I have, I’d like to have an honest chat with you about this whole girl boss movement and the truth and the lies of some of the things that are out there.

And I being girl. Girl bosses. Yeah, that’s right. Ben girl bosses, boss, I ourselves. I really wanted to talk about that for our audience. So before we go into that, what have you been up to Julie? Let’s see, I think I told you that I’m, I’m planting a garden so time we’ve progressed a little bit.

I have some seedlings now, but a bunch of them didn’t come up. I’m really sad. I think they’re too cold. That’s the bummer about New Mexico though, right? Right. Yeah. It’s like in the, in the day they get all that nice warm sunshine and they’re nice and toasty. And then at night they’re freezing cold.

So I just bought like one of those. Matt warmer things yesterday. So we’ll see if that helps. It’s like a little plastic mat that you it’s like a heating pad, but it’s plastic or rubber or something. And then you put it under all the little seedling pots and it keeps the soil warm. So we’ll see like a little debater.

Yeah. Yeah, cause we have a two story house and it gets cold on the bottom floor at night. Really cold. So. Yeah. We’ll see what happens with that, but I’m excited. Things are growing. It feels like, it feels like spring now, right. Was the first day of spring last weekend. So this recording and you know what?

We have a flowering tree in our backyard and the first buds popped open on the first day of spring. And I was like, wow. It perfectly isn’t that crazy? The kids were in our backyard. Cause for my birthday last year, I think I talked about this. I wanted trees cause I’m. Old and I wanted trees for my birthday.

We planted a cherry tree and a apricot tree and the kids ran out and we’re like, listen. Cause we went on a trip, which I’ll talk about under my inspiration category here in a minute. But they were like, we’re gonna have fruit. And I’m was like, Yeah,

but we had bugs. So that was exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So speaking of what has been inspiring you lately. Okay, Julie. So the last time I went on a trip was February. So before this was February, 2020, again, everything was paid 5 million years ago. And. It was to Durango. I, I went with Kenny and I took him on a surprise trip for Valentine’s day.

And so this year we decided to take Kaden, our son up to Durango and do more of like an outside. Outdoors-y mostly away from everyone kind of trip. So I think. The most people we saw were like picking up food. And we did go to like a couple small bookstores, but there was no one in there. So basically the only place I’ve traveled.

In the last year is Durango twice, which is bizarre. But so my inspiration in Durango was sort of vast and varied, but I w I would basically say that, like I was inspired just to be able to like cross the border out of our state. I ha I can’t remember the last time I like stopped on the side of the road and took a picture of like, welcome to colorful Colorado.

Cause I’ve been there a zillion times, but it was just like, so momentous this time too. Be going somewhere. And so we also did, like, we did some different stuff. So we went on a bunch of like little hikes, but the one that I really wanted there was supposedly like a really pretty like ice waterfall.

And you can, I guess, never really gauge how far these things are. And it was apparently like three ish or more miles and the snow was. In some places like to my knees and so that we didn’t have snow shoes, like I thought we were pretty prepared. Cause we had like snow boots and like backpacks with water and like all this stuff.

But I was like, Really overwhelmed by the fact that I, it was like all uphill in this like super deep snow, but it was very inspiring to really capture like so much of this with just like all this snow and white everywhere. And I was totally thinking about you all the way. I was like, Julia would be prepared for this.

She would definitely have like snow shoes and she’d be totally cool with like, making it all the way to the waterfall. Probably with a couple, one of the people in a wedding dress. So I should just keep going. And like, I pushed as hard as I could, but they couldn’t do it. If it makes you feel any better. I recently like I guess a month ago I had a trail that I needed to scout out for a wedding that’s happening in the summer.

I needed to look at the trail. There was yeah, like tons of snow up to my thighs and a few places. And I thought we were like, I didn’t expect it to be that deep. And it was. Really tough. It took us like two hours to do a hike that should have been like 45 minutes. That does make me feel better. I didn’t make it all the way either.

Like eventually, like this is taking too long, obviously I’m not going to be able to see what it looks like. Cause it’s covered in style. So he turned around. But if that makes you feel any better, I have also been there and I did not have snowshoes. It does because I was like, man, this is like Julie’s jam.

And I’m like, okay. I love a hike if there’s something pretty at the end. And so I was like, there’s an ice waterfall, there’s an ice waterfall. I can do it. And then I was just like, I can’t do it. Can’t do it. So it was, it was inspiring though, like to see like how happy my kids were to be out and Because my son’s birthday, like we got some really special like desserts from some places.

And went to one of my favorite little independent bookstores called second, second story books. And it’s like hidden. It’s like up in this little area. And I think I talked about it last time, probably because I love it so much. But yeah, so inspiration was basically just me going anywhere, but here.

So I just had my second COVID shot. Tuesday of this past week. And so two weeks from now, the world is my oyster.

I see.

so this week, my song that I wanted to share with you guys is called. Say what you want in parentheses. I like who I am by the new respects and Josiah. So this song is super upbeat. It’s very vibey. I don’t know. That’s such a cliche thing to say, but it’s really fun. It’s really energizing. And I really love that.

Song has so much confidence. It literally is saying that you can be who you are and like who you are and is women. I think it can be extra hard to have self confidence as creative professionals, as moms, as business owners. It is always really difficult to own who we are and the things that we do. And so whether it’s what we wear, what we create, things that we say, I think that all of those things are a reflection of who we are, and that it’s really important to be able to say, I like who I am and actually believe it.

So this song is just a really great encouragement. It’s. A good song to listen to when you need a little pick me up. So that’s my musical inspiration. This week, you can find this song and all the music I feature here from the podcast on the music from design. Podcast playlist on Spotify.

talk about the girl boss thing. So I kind of, I’ve been thinking about this idea for a long time, as far as like. I’ve been thinking about it from the angle of like being a business owner and a mom, especially during COVID like full-time. And but I think I want to save like the mom angle for a different episode.

Maybe one I do on my own, because I think that there’s, there’s just like so much that we can go into on the just general girl, boss, boss, babe idea. So I got this. I got some feedback from a girl I met on clubhouse via another friend. Her name is Alyssa and she was telling me how she basically doesn’t think that people talk enough about this.

Like, there’s a lot of talk about. The sort of glamorous upsides to being a female business owner and thought it was really overdue that somebody in this space talk about this. So I thought Julia, and I could talk about this. So I’d love to know your thoughts, first of all, like on where you, what you think about the movement just in general.

And then we can sort of talk about Sort of where it is now. And I really I’m big on inspiration as you know, I love to build people up. I love to encourage, but I am also a realist, which is where the process comes into my inspiration. It’s like, there’s this happy medium somewhere in here. And I think that there’s gotta be a happy medium with this as well, because there is a really tough reality to being a business owner as a woman, as a, as an entrepreneur.

So thoughts. Yeah. Okay. So I like human kind of mentioned ideal of the aspect of like building each other up and cheering each other on. I think that’s awesome. And I I think women especially are really good at doing that. And the support and the like tiering and, and all that. That is great. But yes, there is like, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows every day.

In fact, most of the time. You’re working hard on stuff and you don’t, you’ll see the sunshine because you’re in front of your computer. It’s not glamorous all the time, any means. And so, and I think that one thing that I see that kind of happens is With being so vocal about like girl boss and you can do it and like sh showing the cool things you’re doing and everything, what can happen on the flip side of that is other people being like, man, well, I’m not doing that.

Or this person is making six figures and I’m not, and it’s making me feel bad, you know? Like there’s the whole comparison thing which I’m sure that men also deal with. But I, I kind of feel like. As women, we just feel a lot of things. So we compare a lot more. We have, we have a tendency to do that more than men.

I, I think for sure. Yeah. So I think there’s some great things about it. And I do love that women are being more vocal about being bosses and business owners. Because it is encouraging. I, I think in general, like in the last five or 10 years, I’ve seen way more people go out and own their own business.

And I see that too. And like, I was just noticing the other day, like some advertisement. I don’t remember what it was for, but they were basically showing this woman as like a boss, babe kind of a thing. And I was like, wow, like, It’s a, it’s become such a thing now. Like even big companies are you know, noticing that and trying to advertise with it.

So yeah, so I think there are so good things, but also some negative things that come to it. And I think there are a lot of things that we should be doing. That aren’t being done as much as they should. I don’t know if that makes sense. And I have, I have like a few things that we’ll talk about here in a minute that are like some lies that I think that we need to push against.

Some are lies and some are just like misrepresentations, I think, of, of this life. So the reason I kind of started out by, by kind of reiterating that. I didn’t use to want to be a business owner is because sometimes I still like, wonder why I’m doing this. And so the first thing that I kind of wanted to talk about that isn’t necessarily a lie or misrepresentation, but more of a strategy is this idea of, should I, or shouldn’t I like start my own thing.

Should I leave my job? Should I. Become a female entrepreneur is why. And that’s always my big question for so many things from design strategy to brand strategy, to content creation, like any number of things. The whole, why question becomes really important because if you are happy at your job Why would you leave?

If you don’t have a desire to own your own business or have an idea of what you would do, why would you leave? So that’s something that I would like to talk about is basically this idea of needing a purpose and a strategy, like a reason, because the first, the first misrepresentation, I think I want to talk about is that working for someone else is such a bummer, right?

It’s like, I don’t know. It depends on the person. So when I, when I would see my, when I would see my dad doing that, and even early in my design career, when I was still, before I graduated, I always thought, why would I work for myself when I can go be an art director or designer? And let them bring me clients?

Why would I do that to myself? And. Before we move on to, to this actual ly slash mischief representation. I just wanted to S to give a little, like backstory on why I did it, and I would love to hear why you did it. And then we can kind of go through these. So I had zero desire to do it. I left my job where I met you and went to work for Apple and decided I didn’t like retail.

And I still, I was having a hard time finding a design position that I. I felt met the expectations that I had having left a really amazing position. And so soon after that, I got pregnant with my son and had some complications where I had to be on bed, rest and stuff. And I was working as a publishing director for a company and kept having to go home and be on bed rest, and then go back into the office and like direct stuff.

And. It became abundantly clear that once my son was born, this was not going to be feasible because I personally was not okay with paying my paycheck to childcare. And so I know, and I can definitely talk about that in another moms centric episode, but this was sort of the moment where I went, do I really love working for someone else?

Do I like the. Opportunities that are presented when I get to kind of be in charge of my own destiny. Like what kind of clients I work on, what kind of design work I do creating content like blogging was that’s that’s around the time that I started thinking about this whole idea of creating content for people and making the design world sort of a better place.

And could I do that while I was working a full-time job for someone else? And the answers I came to, where that. The things that I really enjoyed actually fell more under being a business owner, which much to my dismay I had to come to grips with, but that’s kind of where I landed and why my mindset changed.

And I struggled with it. And sometimes I still do. I I’m always like looking at LinkedIn, like for jobs I qualify for like, man, I could easily go work for Google with my qualifications or Apple, or like all these big like Silicon Valley companies. And then I think. Could I actually do that now? What I, what I even function in this environment anymore.

I don’t know, but I, I want to know just like a quick recap of your journey and why you decided to jump in head first feet first, dive in head first, jump in feet first into this arena. Yeah. So Back in college. So you guys know that, like I went to school for design. I saw that as my future career photography just kind of happened by accident in a lot of ways.

But so back in college, I started Taking some photos for fun. Then people started asking me to shoot their weddings, which is really crazy. And then I went on to have a design job. I eventually worked for a photography company full time and was doing. I came in with the purpose of just being another photographer and just kind of helping with like everyday admin stuff.

But all of a sudden, like it was a very small company, there were three of us working full-time including the owner. And I just like, felt myself, like wanting to learn about all these new things and yeah. Come up with ideas for the company and they were not always well-received. I feel like I had more ambition for the company than the owner did, but company.

Yeah. But I didn’t realize at the time that I was like shaping myself as an entrepreneur, but it felt like, so I had like, officially started my business back in North Carolina and then I moved to New Mexico kind of put things on hold. Didn’t do anything for awhile. But it was always like a little like, Oh, this is a part-time thing kind of too seriously.

And then it got to a point where I didn’t feel like I could stay in that full-time photography job anymore. And I was applying for all of these unrelated jobs, like, you know, secretary stuff that I was like, yeah, this is easy. I could do it. And I wasn’t getting any of those jobs and it eventually, I was like, I just, I have to quit this job for like, My mental health.

And I was like, I guess I’m just gonna like keep looking for jobs. But in the meantime, I’ll try to like restart my photography business. And I, I just didn’t feel like I was maybe good enough or qualified enough to like, be an entrepreneur. And I think that’s what was holding me back. And then eventually I stopped looking for.

Other jobs, because I was like, Oh, this is like, I can actually do this full time. And so and then that’s when I was like, okay, I have to learn all the things and come up with all this stuff. And that was 2014. So I’ve had a few years for growing in experience and knowledge, but honestly now, like, yeah, sometimes I ask myself that question too, of like, this is hard.

Do I really want it? Like, I could go work for someone else. But honestly, I think I really love the entrepreneur side of things. Like the strategy, the I don’t know, it just feels like a challenge of a puzzle and I do enjoy that. So I don’t think I could go back now. Yeah. So that, that makes a good point.

I think that that’s one of those, those questions that you might be able to ask yourself when you’re contemplating, whether you want to do this or not with her, you want to be a girl boss. And let me side just side note by saying. If you are doing well at your job, whatever job you’re doing, you are already a boss, babe.

Like, I’m just going to throw that out there because you don’t have to be a solopreneur entrepreneur person to carry that title. Like anyone can do it. So there’s, there’s my little like sappy cheery thing that I do. But. The thing that you said is that like the strategy, there is so much problem solving involved in being a business owner.

And if that is something you don’t like, if that’s not something that you even have, like a small amount of interest in, then it’s probably not for you. So that’s like one of those things. So be able to ask your questions about why you want to do it. Make a classic pro and con list, right? Of like, what would be good about me doing this?

What would I hate? And if one outweighs the other, so be it, if they’re equal, that’s going to be tough, but then you can maybe get some advice, talk to people that know you really well. Sometimes it takes an outside person to say, like, you’re really good at your job, but I think you’d be really great at owning your own business.

And sometimes we need that little like boost of encouragement, which is why I think. There is a lot of overly hyped stuff in this arena. So the next thing I wanted to talk about is the idea that anyone can do it. So that is, that is one of those things that you see on Instagram all the time. Like ads pop up all the time.

For me that are just like, are you tired of working 40 hour work days? Then maybe you should take this course and leave that dead end job. And it’s just like, okay. So I’d like to talk a little bit about that idea and whether it’s a good thing, that there are so many women, I feel like pressuring other women too.

Jump into this space otherwise, like they aren’t. Good enough. So what are your thoughts about that? Yeah, I think that’s not like a healthy way of thinking of things. Also kind of connecting the last lie to the, to this one. The culture of business has just changed and. You don’t have to work a like dead end job, you know, like one that you hate.

There are so many amazing businesses out there who are hiring people. And the the workplace is exciting and fun and like flexible. You can work from home. I mean, everybody’s doing it now, but like, even before the payments, there were companies that were offering it’s an option and places where like, You believe in the company and you share their values and like the people that you work with are amazing and innovative.

Like you, it’s not like every job out there for someone else is like a horrible situation. Like, yes, there are some that are not great, but Yeah, you can work for amazing companies who have to share the same vision as you, and are able to offer you what you’re looking for without you having to be the person in charge, making all the decisions.

And so, yeah, absolutely keep that in mind. So if you are feeling like you don’t love your job, but you still. Are loving what you’re doing. Like maybe look at other places that you could work first. And then yeah, if you do decide to become an entrepreneur, like, okay, here’s one thing let’s say you’re a designer.

If you love to design, but you don’t love the marketing side of things, then don’t become a business owner. If you love marketing, but you’re like, I’m maybe not as good at the creative stuff. Like the actual, like creating artwork or something like that. Again, don’t become an entrepreneur. Like it’s, you have to wear so many hats as a business owner that you have to be willing to do all the things because so I’m a.

I’m a big fan of outsourcing. It’s something that I’ve implemented in my business the last year. But when you start out, like you don’t really, you’re not able to just immediately start outsourcing. I don’t think like you probably don’t have the money and maybe not the infrastructure in your business to be able to do that.

So in the beginning, you’ve got to do all the things like you are your own accountant. You’re doing all the marketing, the strategies, the actual service that you’re providing, or the You know, whatever you’re working on you have to be able to work with clients and like have good relations with them.

You know, like if you aren’t a people person, but you have to deal with people like that’s, you know, you can pass that off to somebody else. So there are just so many different aspects that I was just a fraction of them, but you have to be willing to, to dabble in all that. And also You know, be knowledgeable and be good at it.

So it’s kind of Going in a lot of directions all at once. And also you’re like steering the ship, you know? So you’re doing all of it. You’re like the captain, you’re the first mate. You’re like the guy who swabs the deck like you are all, I don’t know. What’s it mean pirates these days. You said the ship threw me off.

Oh, no. That’s okay. It’s really funny. But. I wasn’t planning on talking about this, but Sean West talks about this idea of the overlap technique. He actually wrote a book about it, and it’s almost a way to like, test the waters while you have a full-time job or while you are still working your nine to five quote, unquote, like whatever that day job is.

And if you have. Like an idea that you might want to start your own thing. What he says is to slowly start implementing that. Now it does take a lot more work. And depending on your situation, whether you have kids or whatever, you may be losing sleep, but instead of just quitting your job, like I know a lot of female big name.

Influencer type boss, babe. People will say like, just step out, just do it is really unhealthy. And really ill-advised I think. And what he says is like you were taking the example of, so you’re a designer say you’re working for a company, maybe you’re a junior designer. Maybe you don’t even have that much experience.

And you just don’t like being told what to do. Like you just want to design the way you want and you’re just kind of sick of it. Okay. So maybe in your after hours, do. Some clients of your own, do some freelance work, try to manage your tax, like taking money out for your taxes, making sure you’re sending invoices, like do it the right way as if you were actually running your own business and see how you feel about that.

And then you can kind of gauge, is this something I want to keep. Delving into, and the more clients you get after hours that starts to set you up financially, especially, but also mentally and preparing you for, if you decide like this is my jam, like this is what I want with my life. Then you will be able to step out confidently from that other job and say, Hey.

So, and so like I decided this is not for me. I really want to start my own design firm or whatever it is. And like, I appreciate the experience I have here, but I think I’m ready to start my own thing. And you’ve already got like a baseline of clients. You’ve got some experience understanding how running your business works.

And that’s definitely something that I have not heard virtually anywhere from any female. Boss, babe type people. Is this idea of like being prepared before you step out. And all of it seems to be just follow my plan, just, just follow my 12 step plan and you will make $12,000 a week. And I’m just living over here.

Rolling my eyes. Like this is not reality for most people. So yeah, go ahead. I love that because. I dunno, I’m a person that likes to be prepared, but I think that’s super smart. And in my own words, there was a lot of that building up to that moment of quitting. My job was me doing a lot of stuff for the business I was working for.

That was honestly more like being a business owner than an employee. And then also, yeah, like doing design work on the side and stuff like that, where I was sort of, you know, Being a business owner kind of softly, but just, and also like being so involved in that business and the inner workings of it, like I got a pretty full picture what it actually looked like.

And also say like, you know, if there’s some place that’s like, are you tired of working for out 40 hours a week? Like, You will be working more than 40 hours a week for your business. If you like working 40 hours, you are not going to like being an entrepreneur, especially early on before you have systems set in place.

Exactly. Yeah. And I, you know, fully believe in setting boundaries and having personal time, business time and all that, but like, they’re just going to be times where you have to. Be working more than 40 hours. And if you’re not physically working that time, your brain is working that time. Right. So yeah.

It’s but I will. So I do like the message of like, just quit your job, just do it in the context of like step out of your comfort zone. It does feel scary. It’s never going to not feel scary. Like. Like I said, like, it was a confidence thing for me. I was like, I don’t think I should just go full-time into my own business because I don’t think I can do it.

I don’t think I do make it. I don’t think I can make enough money. And so in that sense, it’s like, yes, just go ahead and do it like, but also how a plan, like if you just are like, okay, I’m going to quit my job. And then I’m going to start doing this. And like you spend a month making the perfect logo.

That’s not going to get you clients, you know, like you’ve got to be able to kind of hit the ground running and be ready to market yourself and do all those things. If you think, just making your business and saying like, Hey guys, I made a business. Right. I get it. Like that’s stuff. I made a website. Come see me.

Yeah. That’s not going to be enough. And I know that some people, especially in the photography world, some people really thrive on referrals and like, you know, Oh my best friend’s parents, you know, like a friend of a friend kind of a thing that only works in the beginning for a little bit. And yeah.

For one, you’re probably not going to get your dream clients. And for two, they’re probably not going to be able to, will be willing to pay prices that are going to be sustainable for you. So that’s like a very like short term. Like I did get a lot of business when I first went full-time because suddenly I was available to take all this business and there was, you know, word of mouth stuff, but that’s not, Oh, I run my business now.

It’s not a long-term strategy. The kinds of jobs I was taking then, and the kind of money I was making that as best we different than now. And so is my strategy. So yeah, being prepared is, is really important. So I think those two go hand in hand, like yes. Have courage and confidence. Yeah. That if this is the right thing for you to just go ahead and do it, but like have a play and know for sure that this is what you want to try.

Yeah. And don’t just act on, I would say don’t, don’t just act on frustration, which incorporates like the plan. And you’re like asking why, because I think that there’s also a lot of push behind this idea that if you are unhappy, you should quit your job as opposed to. Even trying to find purpose and meaning like, what if you don’t have the means or opportunity for whatever reason to quit your job, even if you know, you’d be a great entrepreneur.

There’s also something to be said for finding joy where you are for the time being, and making it, you know, Sort of manifesting your own destiny inside the place where you work and trying to change it up for yourself. So I just had a, I had a coaching client not too long ago, who hired me because he is working sort of as a designer, but people aren’t really treating him like a designer.

And so he wanted to know, you know, he doesn’t want to quit his job. He, he can’t quit his job. He has a family to support. He doesn’t have. Or really need the opportunity to have his own business, but he wants to start doing, being seen as a designer and his job. And so. What I helped walk him through was basically the process, obviously, because that’s going to show, when you learn the strategic process, it’s going to show that, you know what you’re doing, that you know how to operate from a point of strategy and all of these things that set you up for being more than just a button pusher.

And so helping him find. Meaning and purpose in his job where he is, is something that, that you can also try to do while you’re even in this transition. Because otherwise, if you’re especially as a female, like if, like you said, we’d like to compare so much, right. And if, you know, in your heart, like I’m a business owner, but you can’t leave that can create like this icky feeling.

Every time you have to wake up and go to a job that maybe you might otherwise like. So trying to find. Some, some joy and some happiness and some fulfillment where you are and try to change things up where you are while you can, that might help you be a better business owner later, maybe implement processes if you are a designer or if you’re.

A creative director or an art director, like any of those kinds of things that might set you up for being a better business owner later, try to implement and test those things inside the ecosystem. I think I know for a fact that going from creative art design director, basically directly into business owner, pretty much for me, I look back at a lot of the things that I implemented in that working for someone else space.

And see saw later how that helped me be a better designer, a better business owner, because you get to learn how to work with other people, just because you own your own business. Doesn’t mean you’re working by yourself. So that’s another one of the lines I wanted to talk about. And that was a nice little lead in, I guess, but is like, it’s all you all the time and you can do what you want.

It doesn’t matter. Like no one tells you what to do. You have your own, this, that, or the other thing. So. What do you think about that idea? That being a business owner as a woman, especially, but just being a business owner, entrepreneur means it’s all on you. So we did talk about that. A lot of the tasks are on you, but does that mean that all the decisions and all of the aspects of how you work are all you.

So one of the things, as I was feeling very unhappy in my job that I quit to become a business owner. One of the things that I felt was that I wanted to treat clients differently, have different policies. So that was something I was able to control immediately was to do things the way that I felt that.

They should be done. However, you’re always going to be working with some sort of a client. And especially like in the design world, like the client does have, we’ve talked about this before, but like, they do have a say in things, if they’re saying this is what I want and you’re like, nah, you don’t want that.

I’m like collaboration. Neither of you are the boss, right? Yeah. So you still have to, it’s not like you get to just make up everything all the time. Like you. You have to deal with that. And then even if you’re you know, if you bring someone else in to help you in the business or you’re bringing in like consultants to do different things for you, whatever, like you have to work with their schedule too.

And like the way that they need to work, like it’s. Yeah. Also just kind of life in general, like you don’t get to your role in the world, you have to work with other people. And so it’s never going to be like, quote on quote. Perfect. And also that’s not really healthy either. If you just get everything that you want, you know, like there needs to be checks and balances and you need to look at other people’s perspective.

And that’s just going to continue. So yes, in my business, there were things that I could immediately change that I had to. You know, implement this policy in my old job, because that’s the way it was, even though I didn’t agree with it. And I was able to change those things. But yeah, it’s never going to be just like exactly how you want it to be.

So yeah. Again, you have to work with people, always. The last thing that I, I think we kind of have hinted at this in most of these, but the sort of wrap up like, idea that encompasses all of these is that. All you have to do is try hard like that. It’s just, it’s not that difficult. You just have to try harder.

And if you try hard enough, you will be successful. And I think that in some aspects, yes, you have to work hard. You do have, there is a lot of hard work involved. It’s not easy, but I think when someone tells you, you just have to try harder. It’s almost like It sort of reminds me, and this is sort of a weird tie in, but sort of reminds me of the whole like black lives movement and how people sometimes will tell that group of people.

Well, you’re just not trying hard enough. Like if you just try hard, you can jump over XYZ hurdle. And as women, I think that we have some similar hurdles that are cultural, that sometimes. We can’t just try hard. Like we have to work extra hard and really change people’s perspective on us because I, I already know that a male creative director is going to be perceived differently.

And approached differently and the prices are going to be questioned less often than they will coming from me. I have to work extra hard, not just try hard. We have to work extra hard to prove that we are just as good, that we are often better if I may say so than some of our male counterparts in these areas.

And so. The idea that that has pushed a lot in the boss, babe girl boss movement is just try hard is actually like, not even enough. It’s like the reality is you have to try harder than most people, especially as a creative person, because just being a creative professional is like a huge hurdle because people don’t value what we do.

And then you add on female. Then you add on female business owner. And it’s just like all of these huge steps that we have to kind of overcome to just like have our head above water and be able to approach the world as a business owner. How do you feel about that idea? I mean, I think that that’s all valid and.

That’s just another reason of like, if you want to jump into being an entrepreneur, like be ready for all of that, if you don’t want to deal with it, then like some of those challenges are going to be there no matter what, like, if you’re a woman in any creative field, like it, it is what it is, but yeah, you have to be ready to, to work harder and smarter too.

I will also say like you know, Being undervalued, just wanting people to understand and to get it is not going to make them understand. I get it. You have to have strategies in place that are going to be able to persuade people and show your value and all of that. So if you’re not ready for all of that, the challenges and also the solutions then yeah, again, you don’t have to.

Do that, and you don’t have to feel the pressure of like, you’re still just as valuable if you aren’t the owner of the business and you can also be just as happy. Sometimes you have more happy if you are the owner of the business. So there’s no like right or wrong answer here. And. Yeah, it is, it is tough.

And you do get a lot of work into it and ETFs to be ready for learning a lot of stuff and being able to implement those things and really strategize things. But I love it and I think it’s. So, yeah. And so I didn’t want this all to be negative. I just really wanted to be real with people because there are definitely things that I didn’t realize.

I know that that always happens. Right. And that’s why there’s so many courses on how to own your own business and stuff. But I think that there’s like this missing link. There’s like a gap. In between like not being happy and here’s all the steps while you are a business owner. And there’s not a lot being said in this in-between of like, should I leap or not?

Should I do that? How do I do that? And so I agree. Like I sometimes think that the grass is greener and it would be nice if I had my insurance and it would be great if someone else did my taxes. Well, I mean, technically Kenny does my taxes, so I can’t really complain. However, like doing all of the stuff like that would be nice.

So just taking a look at your situation and realizing what things matter to you, do you love being able to go into work and then leave work and not think about it until you go back in on Monday morning? Or do you just have so many. Ideas brewing in your head about how to run business, how to communicate with clients better, like all of the things about the business that you’re in, that you would do better and you actually have a drive to maybe want to do that.

Then maybe this is for you. And so I wanted this to be a wake up to the realities, but also definitely encouraging because it is much more fulfilling when you have built something. When you know that. People are looking to you for advice, or they are coming to you because of your, or skills and paying you for your experience, as opposed to coming to your boss, who comes to you with the job that no one knows you did.

And so understanding your motivations is really important and realizing that it is possible. It is a lot of hard work, but it is definitely possible. And. I love that there is a boss, babe girl boss movement, because we are a part of it. Like it didn’t become big, right until after we were already sort of doing this thing.

But I love, I love that there are so many female entrepreneurs. And if you are one already, we’d love to hear like what your struggles have been, what your triumphs have been. If you are thinking about being one, we’re always happy to. Give any advice we may have. We are not experts by any means. We’re not billion-dollar company runners, but we love what we do.

We’re passionate about every single thing that we do in our business. And I know that Julia and I would be happy to talk to you. So on that note, I just like to wrap up by saying the female entrepreneur business owner space is beautiful and empowering and freeing in a lot of ways, but it is hard work.

So. Check those lists understand what’s involved, know your priorities before you take the leap. So any last words. I think that all sounds good. Okay. Great. If you love what we do here at design speaks podcast, we’d love for you to become one of our regular supporters. Our patrons. Get the chance to give us input on new season topics.

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All right. So that is our episode for today. Be sure to leave us a review on iTunes, you can always send us a note on Instagram at design speaks podcast. Find us at design space, podcast.com for all the show notes and episodes from the past. Design speaks is brought to you. And produced by Kenneth Kniffen and Dakota cook.

A shout out to Colin from Vespertine design speaks is a project of Brandy C and it is recorded in the shadow of the watermelon pink Sandia mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico, and as always. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening till next time.