Episode Transcription Season 3 Chapter 2
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Welcome to design speaks. We’re here to empower you to unlock your own inspiration 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 why your website matters and updating your portfolio. Stay tuned for that coming up later in the show.
Julie
scape, Randy, how’s it going? Good. Good. So recently I posted a reminder. A reminder to my community over on Instagram. And I basically just said, I don’t know who needs to hear this, but update your portfolio. And I got a lot more messages than I expected in my DMS. And. More comments than I normally get on a post.
So I guess people are resonating with this. So I thought, you know what, maybe we should talk about how to do this and the importance of it. So today I’m really excited to talk about why it’s important to update your portfolio and also your website. So, but first tell me what you’ve been working on lately.
Um, so last episode, I was mentioning that I went on a little solo mini road trip thing, and I kind of had some extra time. So I took with me a book that I actually got for Christmas. And I just like, haven’t had the time, or I guess I should say haven’t made the time to read it yet. And so this was really great to just be able to like sit down and immerse myself in it.
Um, so it’s a, it’s called wild guide. Uh, Wales. So it’s about traveling Wales, which I’ve kind of been obsessed with Wales for a while now. It’s like a hidden gem country, um, where
my
aunt lives investors are from my great grandpa’s from Wales. I think we’ve talked about this.
That’s
awesome. Yeah. Um, yeah, so I’ve, I’ve been wanting to go there for a while, but one thing I love about Wales is it is like, kind of, it’s very similar to like Scotland and England and a lot of ways.
But like nobody goes there.
The Americans don’t yeah. It’s not at the top of most people’s lists for sure. Yeah.
Yeah. Um, so I, the, I was flipping through and like, The pictures are amazing. Everything is so beautiful. And, um, this book in particular shows a lot of, kind of like undiscovered places that, um, aren’t necessarily like super popular destinations, which I am all about.
I love getting out in nature and like the peace of nature. And so for me, a lot of times, like I’m really, don’t love crowds. So. Some of the more popular destinations are not my favorite, just because like, there’s just so many people I can’t like truly enjoy it. So I love it if I’m out in a place and there’s nobody else there.
Um, so it was just really fun to like look through there and I have a Google, my maps we’ll have like a million Google mind maps. Maps, but, um, I have one specifically for the UK and like, anytime I find something really cool, I put it down on the map. So next time I’m planning a trip there. I can like, look at the map and be like, Ooh.
Yeah. I found this like really obscure little tea shop that I like put on the map or, oh yeah, there was this waterfall over here. Like maybe we can make a side trip. So, um, even though I’m not planning any international trips right now, it’s just really fun to. Did dream to liquor around.
You’re not, you are planning them.
You just don’t have any booked. Right?
That’s true. Those were
accurate. Always planning. Okay. Back up. What are Google my maps. And do I look like, is this what they’re called? And I haven’t just never seen them or am I already making them and not knowing that that’s what they’re called. It’s
different than Google maps.
I think it’s Google maps. I dunno. I dunno what the URL is, but
maps.google. I don’t know.
It might be something weird like that, but basically you can make a different, like all kinds of different maps, um, and they get saved to your Google drive and you can put little pins on there, um, which is different than Google earth.
So. It’s a whole separate thing. Um, it’s I think it’s a little more user-friendly than Google earth, but it doesn’t have as many like little features as it’s kind of like the Google maps map. Um, but anyway, so you can like look up places on there. Um, and you can put notes in there and like color code things.
You can make different layers. So like when we were going to the UK last time, I had, it was like a two week trip. We were covering a lot of ground. It was kind of a mess of little pins in there. Um, so I color coded them based on like, you know, if it was a restaurant or, um, You know, like a historical place or a hike or whatever, and then you can put different little icons on there and then also different layers for like the different areas that we’re going to to so that it wasn’t as overwhelming.
But, um, I actually have a blog post that talks about this. I don’t know if you can
hear my mind is being blown. Do you hear my mind being blown because that’s what’s happening right now? How did I not know about this? So in addition to helping me with my SEO very soon, You’re going to have to show me how this works.
Okay. Because I sent
you the link to my blog post that explains it, and we can put it in the show notes and you can look at it. Yeah. I love it though. And you can also use the app on your phone. So like, as you’re actually traveling, you can like pull it up and see it and everything. It’s so great. Like as someone who loves to plan and someone who loves to travel, it’s like one of my absolute favorites.
Yes.
Oh my gosh. I’m so excited. That sounds so cool and exciting. So is this wild. Thing like a series of books, like it is the wild, whatever.
I think it’s written by various people from the UK. So most of them are like UK based things. Like, I think that one for Scotland and then a couple of different areas in Britain.
Um, and then they have a few for like, like I just. Put on my birthday wishlist one for Scandinavia. Um, I think they have one for Italy, different places, but I would like for them to make more because I want to read all of them. Cause I loved this one so much.
Okay. Very cool. That’s really fun. I’m so excited.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I just another plug for Google. My maps, like. I think it’s great. Like, I have so many different maps, but I have like a library list of places. Anytime I find a cool place, it just goes on the map that way. Like, I don’t know if I’ll ever need it, but it’s always there in case I do. So now that I’ve kind of blown your mind with this new tip, what has been
inspiring you lately?
Oh my goodness. Now, can I just say you and your mind maps, which I keep thinking, you’re saying mind maps. Yeah, cause that’s just not quite the same now. Not the same thing. Uh, yes. So a couple of weeks ago I was mothers. It was mother’s day. And usually on mother’s day weekend, I take the Saturday for me. So it alleviates a lot of.
Uh, drama and unnecessary chaos on mother’s day where it’s like, you know, I don’t want Kenny to feel like he has to choose me over his mom or like I have to abandon my mom for what I want to do. And so we’ve for a long time, just celebrated me on Saturday. So I have the whole day to do whatever I want.
So the day was inspiring, but the most inspiring thing to me was I got to go rock climbing again. It’s been awesome. I, at last time I had went rock climbing was February of 2020. So it’s been like almost a year and a half. And I was, I was really nervous because like I got that COVID 19 pounds happening.
And just, even though I’ve been running, like just not feeling super in shape, especially like upper body strength wise for rock climbing. So I was like nervous. So. Officially, I will say rock climbing, but ultimately I will say that, like, I think my, my husband was my inspiration and I was, I was really how you do rock climbing is you do the hardest one first, cause you’re going to get more tired.
So then you work your way down. So I tried to do like a pretty difficult level for me and. Couldn’t even make it halfway. And I got really upset because I’m like, I’m supposed to be good at this. Like I’m supposed to be good at this. And he literally like got his dad voice for me and was like, don’t talk like that.
You can do it. You’re fine. And I was like, Okay, I can, I can do it. And so I ended up being able to, I pushed through, I didn’t ever do that one. That one was just too difficult for not rock climbing for however long, but I was very inspired by his, in his encouragement. And while I was climbing, it was, I was like going and thinking, you know, we all kind of need this person.
We need somebody that can actually. Um, push us when we like, start to feel like we’re not enough, or like, we can’t do enough or like, no, I thought I was better than this. And so he was really encouraging to me and I ended up being able to do 10 climbs and I got this cool new app for my watch. So it told me that I climbed 279 feet total, which is a lot.
Yeah. So. I guess this week, I was just really inspired by the idea of always having someone there to push you to, um, encourage you and remembering that, although I am an Enneagram three and I am pretty self motivated that I tend to be even harder on myself because I am an Enneagram three and I can usually push myself.
And when I’m not good at something, it hits me even harder because I. I want to be good at all the things. And so I was, I was inspired by. My husband, knowing that I needed that little, like, Hey snap out of it and get, get to it. You can do it. So that’s really what I was inspired by. I wanted, I was also gonna say like shopping at thrift stores for books.
Cause I also did that that day, but that was really just like shopping therapy music. It saved me, but it drives me crazy.
Got to decide to be happy.
I’m sorry.
this week, I’ve been listening to a song called decide to be happy by Mr. Wives. This song has a really groovy, like. Sixties ish B sound, which usually I’m not really into that kind of kind of vibe, but I really love the lyrics. It says music get saved me, but it drives me crazy. Cause it forces my eyes to take a look and see, got to decide to be happy.
Cause it don’t always come natural. And I think that, especially with the craziness, that life has been this past year there’s. Some of it. We just can’t control a lot of it. We can’t control, but oftentimes I think we forget that we can. Have a little bit of control over being happy because being happy doesn’t necessarily always a feeling.
Being happy can really be a choice and to choose to find joy in things, even when stuff is difficult or hard. So. This song is just a really good reminder to me that even if it doesn’t come naturally, even when we don’t feel like ourselves, that sometimes all it takes is sort of a shift in mindset to remember that we can be happy.
We can go out, we can be creative, we can do hard things. So I hope that this song encourages you and it’s been on my playlist a lot and I just really love it.
Let’s talk about the portfolio. So let’s, let’s be some transparent hosts here and. Talk about when the last time we updated our portfolios,
this is actually very timely because I just updated my lake a few weeks, maybe a month ago.
So John called you out,
it was before you called me out. Um, but it had been far too long, far too long before that.
Yeah. So you can’t even tell me how long I would say it was at. Uh, depending on like how you define update your portfolio. I, I am pretty sure the last time I added a new piece to my portfolio was probably at least a year, but before I like actually did something new. With my whole portfolio, like categories of things I design or anything like that, it’s probably been three to five years.
And that is part of the reason that I was like, Hey, I don’t know who needs to hear this, but cause I needed to hear it because even though honestly, I still haven’t gotten there yet. I know it’s like officially on my list of things that I need to update because I keep telling people, you need to do X, Y, Z to get the kind of work you want.
And we’ll talk about that in a minute, but I haven’t done it yet. I haven’t taken my own medicine. So let’s talk about briefly about some of the reasons that updating your portfolio is really important. So I think that a lot of times when talking about a portfolio it’s sort of assumed or taken like, oh, that’s something that like new designers do.
That’s like, of course you need a portfolio, you have to get a job right out of college or right out of whatever. And so then. Three five, 10, 20 years down the road. Your work in your portfolio is still like what you had in there when you graduated from college and you never really, you know, because you’re getting work or maybe you’re working at an agency or maybe you are doing lots of other things and you’re getting work.
So why, why should I update my portfolio? So. I have some points, but I want to know maybe when I say that, like, why is it important for people that have been doing their creative work for more than say, five years to update their portfolio?
I think two things first come to mind. Um, one is for you and one is for other people.
So for other people, if you’re gonna work with someone, if someone’s going to either hire you. If you’re doing freelance, or if it’s your own business or they’re hiring you like at a specific business to work there full time, they need to kind of know what they’re getting. You know, like yep. From my perspective.
So I’ve kind of changed my editing style a few times. If I had my old editing style on my website and someone came on and saw that and loved it. And then they booked me, worked with me, got their photos back and they’re like, wow, this was not what I was expecting. Um, or even just like the way that I shoot has evolved even just kind of year to year.
Like people need to see the kind of photos that they are going to. Get, um, I shouldn’t be showing them stuff that isn’t accurate. Um, you know, like for instance, like occasionally someone will ask for a specific pose, um, And I’ll do it for them, but I’m not going to put it in my portfolio because it’s not something that I came up with.
And if I would never actually just do it voluntarily, it doesn’t need to be out there even on Instagram, which is basically kind of a super, super up-to-date right portfolio. Um, yeah. So people need to know what they’re actually going to get like fresh stuff. That is what you’re producing now. Um, and then the second thing I think is also just for your, like, Your confidence of like putting out the stuff that you’re working on right now and being like, really proud of it and saying like, Hey everybody, this is what I’m doing.
And I love it. And this, this does it.
Yeah. That’s great. I actually, so one of my first points was that your style and your visual voice is evolving all of the time. Yeah. Self-confidence, isn’t one that I had really thought about and that’s really, that’s really good. One to add. So. Looking at like your style and visual voice.
There’s a couple of things about that. So, yeah, so we are evolving as creatives and honestly, like, I feel like if your work as any kind of creative, like you can still keep your same voice, right? Your, your same visual voice in a lot of ways, but still evolve and grow. And it’s fine. If you want to keep old stuff on there.
If, depending on the kind of work that you do, if it is still the kind of work you would want to do, then leave it on there. Um, but also like you, you don’t want your work to look dated. So that’s another point is especially in, you know, well, I guess in any creative field, you can tell the trends, right? So, yeah.
Already this whole look of like the sepia sort of monotone photography that all the influencers were using for a long time is starting to kind of go away and you can start to go, oh, I know when this influencer started doing this stuff because they’re still doing it and they just look like they haven’t grown at all.
And they’re just doing the same thing. So whether it’s like photography styles or. I don’t know, I don’t design with like grunge effects anymore because it’s a little dated, unless the concept I’m going for asks for that, or it’s going to appeal to the audience or, you know, like there are things that will, but if your work looks like you aren’t growing and evolving, You’re probably not going to get as much work, to be honest because people don’t generally want, like, if they want the vintage look like ask you to do a vintage look, but they’ll look at your news and then go up.
But I kind of like, I was hoping for maybe something like this, this something you do, and you can say no, because you don’t do that. But if it’s vintage, just because it’s like old, not like. 1920s vintage or something like that. That’s not the kind of look that you want.
So if you’re doing freelance stuff and you’re putting work out there and it looks dated, people are going to wonder.
What have you been doing since then? Yeah. Have you been doing anything? Are you like not fresh? Um, if you own your own business and you’ve got that stuff out there that people might wonder if you’re still in business, to be honest. Um, I was looking at, uh, like a wedding venue kind of thing the other day at their website and the photos on there, the bride’s dress was very like nineties, early two thousands.
And I was like, are they still in business? Are they like. Doing a good job with things like, why don’t they have fresh photos? Is someone getting married there or like, what’s the deal? You know? It just, it pops up a lot of questions that you don’t want people to
be asking. Right? Yeah. In parentheses, that’s what I have.
It implies you aren’t doing anything new. So we are totally on the same page. And this is something that I fall into because, um, there are things that you maybe don’t want in your portfolio. So this’ll just be like a small sidebar, like you said, like there’s. Certain poses that people will ask for that you’re like, I don’t want to really promote that.
I do that. So I’m not going to put that on there. So there’s definitely been times where I still do brands like branding all of the time. I don’t want to do a lot of branding. The only reason I do it is maybe it’s a. A family member or a nonprofit, or like something that I feel passionate about, but I’m not going to show it because that’s not the kind of work I want.
So then I fall into well, but then I don’t have anything new on my website because that’s what I’ve been working on lately, but that’s literally not all I’ve been working on. And I need to remember that whatever you’re working on counts, and this is another point put in your personal projects. Like if, if you’re a photographer and.
Maybe you used to do weddings, but you want to start doing maybe more photojournalistic stuff, but you don’t have any photo journalism jobs start fading out the wedding stuff. Even maybe you’re still doing those. Maybe that’s what’s paying the bills, but go out and do some photo journalism of your own and start putting that in there.
And that will be your updating of your portfolio. That’s like a really good way to show new work, even if it’s not necessarily paid Newark.
That is literally exactly what I did when I made the switch from doing traditional big weddings to going into adventure elopements. I just had to, even though there were some images that I loved, I had to pull them out of my portfolio and I only put stuff in there that looked like it could be from adventure wedding now.
Had I done a venture wedding when I changed my portfolio. No, I put stuff in there from additional weddings, but that wasn’t a setting that could look like an adventure alumina and it only showed the couple. Um, and then I did styled shoots and just, you know, did some sheets in various places. And, and then that gave me the freedom to do the kind of poses I wanted to play with my edits, that like to get it exactly how I wanted and put out the stuff that I.
Was wanting to book. Um, but yeah, that’s exactly how I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t wait for those types of jobs to come along because they weren’t going to just magically come along. Right. I wasn’t like. Showing that stuff to bring those people in.
So, yeah. So that’s a good lead into, it’s a way for you to get more of the work you are currently passionate about updating our portfolio, whether it is with real clients or not.
So maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe all the work you’re doing is maybe for, um, something that you. Have done a lot of personal projects for, and you keep getting work like that, but then you want to switch gears and people are already hiring you to do something that you have in your stuff, but you’re not putting that on.
Then you can switch it around and do it the opposite way and it shows your expertise. So. Whatever you are wanting to do. You need to make sure that that is like the focal point of your portfolio. So don’t put the stuff that you want to do, like all the way down at the bottom of the list. If you really want to be doing like, maybe you’re doing a lot of things, but you really want to do more of this thing and you have maybe real jobs in all these categories.
I’ve done every kind of design. And this has been, this was a hard thing for me. And this is something that I’m going to be doing when I update my portfolio is I have book covers, posters, logos, music stuff, um, apparel, like I have like all the categories because I wanted to show that I could do it all.
Yeah. And whenever you need, I can do it for you. But in the past few years, I, I have only been promoting on Instagram, the kind of stuff that I want. But I haven’t changed my portfolio. So when people go from Instagram to my website to go, oh, let’s see the, like, let’s see the kind of work you’ve done. It’s it’s like, oh, there’s a lot of things on here.
I’m out. This is too much information. I can’t. Yeah. Like this is not what I want. So, um, making sure that you are like even having a hierarchy. So if there are three kinds of design that you want to do, Put them in order, this is more of like a very practical, like put the thing you want to do the most, like up at the top.
So that’s, that’s some very, like, let’s just talk for a second. That’s like why it’s important, but. Why do you think it would be important for somebody that’s maybe been working in an office or like in a more formal, not entrepreneurial sort of situation for maybe the past five or 10 years? Why do you think that’s still important for them to update their portfolio?
I think the first two reasons that I said, like the confidence boost for yourself and to kind of look back over and be like, wow, okay. I have been doing cool things. And then also. If anyone is looking at it, um, in whatever circumstance that is like, they need to be seeing what you’re actually working on.
Yeah.
And just as like a sidebar, make sure that when you are hired or maybe you’re already at a job that you are very clear about, like the rights that you have to, the work that you make while you are there. Because I know that when I left a job at one point. I was told when I left that none of the work that I did was something that I could take with me.
If I already had it in my possession, say I had it on a hard drive or a jump drive or on a CD or something that I could, I was welcome to use that in my portfolio, but anything else. Even if I had worked on it, if I didn’t currently have it in my possession, like it was nothing I could use. And that wasn’t something that I knew the whole work for hire as an employee, like all of that legal stuff, I didn’t know.
And not all employers care, not all employers will be. Adamant about this belongs to me, but a lot of creative employers, well, because it’s intellectual property and there’s like this line between like what you own and what they own and what you made while you work for them is what they own and all of that stuff.
So if you want to be able to add that kind of work that you’re doing, working under somebody else, you need to be really clear. Um, At any point, like, is this something I can use to promote myself when I leave? Or if I leave at any point in the future or now like, just to show people what I’m working on.
So that’s just like a small little thing. Cause sometimes maybe you don’t want this huge gap. It’s like a gap in your resume. Right. If there’s like this huge gap in your portfolio, it’s like, you weren’t doing anything for 20 years.
Yeah. I’ve been in that situation twice and it’s really hard to like, Rebuild and try to find a job or whatever after that.
Or if you decide to, you know, do your own business, like if you don’t have anything to show, you’re like, man, I have all this experience and I don’t have anything to show and that’s a really rough place to be. So I would say for my own experience, be very careful when you do sign on with someone of like, actually read through all of that paperwork.
And if you’re not comfortable with signing something. Don’t sign it, have a conversation with them. Be prepared to walk away if you have to, because it really can put you in a bad situation. Um, that’s hard to get out of
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Share an episode with a friend or send us a quick note to hello@designspeakspodcast.com. Now let’s talk about the importance. Of the portfolio as part of like the website in general, but also what’s the importance of just updating our website. So say even maybe we have not updated any of it, or maybe we’ve only been updating like our behalf site portfolio, but like our actual websites, just like ma.
It’s super important. I could call you drilling time about that.
You let’s let’s hear your, your top
tips. Um, okay. So I’m like, where do I even start with this? Um, okay. From user experience, like people need to see that stuff is up to date and okay. So if no one, if somebody has never interacted with you ever, and they come in into your portfolio, They may not know, like, was this taken a year ago, two years ago yesterday.
They don’t know. Um, but other people, like if someone’s been following you on Instagram and then they go and they’re like, wow, I remember this picture was from three years ago. I don’t see anything fresh. Um, I actually just went on a hair and makeup artists website the other day. Cause I was hoping to book her service and I didn’t see anything fresh on there.
And I went to her Instagram. And then vendor new posts and several years. And I was like, is this person still in business? I do not know. And I sent her an email and I never got a reply. So I have to assume that she’s not. Um, but like what if she is? And she’s just like missing out on all their referrals and, and my business and everything, because I didn’t know if there was anybody there.
Right.
Just crickets. Yeah.
It’s. That’s not a good place to be like, you do need to be pretty active. Um, also like if you’ve got dates on your website, if you say something like it’s 2020, or if you have a little copyright 2020, like change that, update that, or just take the date out altogether, because that’s another like kind of red flag as somebody going through.
You’re like, oh,
okay. Yeah. That’s my blog posts for me. Like, because I just have like blog posts. I mean, I probably should take it off. That’s probably, that’s a good hint. Um, because I don’t write a lot of blog posts. I write mini blogs on my Instagram all the times what I consider it. Um, but yeah, agreed when I go to people’s websites and whether they’re creatives or anything I’m looking for as far as like a business or a service that I’m trying to acquire for something.
It’s always, are they still active? Like when is the last, if, if like the footer says like copyright 2015 and it’s 20, 21, I’m like, Nope. Yeah.
So what else? Yeah. Um, okay, so also, um, it’s great that you brought up blog posts because that’s something that also probably needs a refresher from time to time. So, um, I do a lot of, uh, kind of educational, like helpful blog posts.
Um, so from time to time, I go through and see if there’s something that I can rewrite or add to that. Um, because I’ve found that I like I’m gaining experience. As they go along. So I have more to say on the topics. Uh, so I just went back and rewrote a bunch of very old blog posts that, um, we’re doing well for SEO and everything, but I just thought that they could be better written from a user experience and be more helpful.
Um, also updating your photos in there is a good thing, because again, you’re showing off your portfolio there, but also Google just likes to see that things are being updated. That. Again, you’re still there. Yeah. Um, yeah. So that’s important aspect of things too, and, uh, updating your website just to, not just for your portfolio, but just your messaging and everything to be fresh.
And current is so important. And that’s another thing that I just went through and redid the entire website coffee. Um, and I feel so much more confident in it now because it’s, it’s a hundred percent like. On current brand. Yeah.
And also headshots, like I have issues with headshots because my hair changes like every three weeks.
So I have just trouble choosing headshots. Um, I get professional ones done like once every two years. And then I, I, I spend like, Time and effort and all this stuff on these shots. And then I only use a few for a short time because then my hair doesn’t look that way anymore. But, um, that is definitely one of those things where you can sort of tell.
Like how long this person has been, how long it’s been since this person that’s touched their website, is there their headshot? Does it match their Instagram profile? Does it even look like them at all now? Like have they been a blond for 15 years? And this is like them as a brunette and you’re like, okay, something is seriously wrong here.
Yeah. Um, updating is a lot of work. Is there like, are there any like practical, um, Things that you do, like on a regular basis, besides the blog post thing to like, make sure, like, do you have any tasks that you do on a regular basis to help make sure that you are staying on top of it?
Um, so once upon a time I was on top of my portfolio and I would just go through like every so often, um, when I had done, you know, several jobs and, um, Pull out like my best shots.
And then. Figure out, you know, like what of those I wanted to put in my portfolio. Um, I think I bet our way to keep track of that for myself is to like, make another folder in that client’s folder and put the best shots in there that way. Um, that’s just saves you a lot of time. So when you’re looking for photos for Instagram, if you want a blog about that, if you want to update your portfolio, if you’re creating a new page and you need photos for it, like you already have the best of the best pulled out.
Um, also I kind of wanted to touch on. What the best of the vest is. Yeah, for sure. I don’t think it’s always what we think the best of the best is. Um, so yes, it needs to show like really good quality work, but I think it also needs to show your style, um, and like, you know, very much you, so it stands out from everybody else’s, um, it also needs to show like, Kind of with the kind of experience that you’re going to get someone like.
So for me, when I was going through my portfolio recently, it wasn’t just about like beautiful photos. It was about showing the kind of allotment days that I want my clients to have and that I want to help them create. So, um, yes, I could show my portfolio could be full of pictures of brides and grooms and.
Them looking nice and everything, but I wanted to show more than just like oppose that someone who’s a regular wedding photographer could do. I wanted to show my ride in a kayak or a couple having a picnic or a couple of off-roading like the kinds of things that the people that I want to work with are doing.
So that goes beyond just like, it’s a cool photo. And like, some of those aren’t necessarily my best work. But they’re, they’re showing the kind of experience and the kind of things that I do. So, um, I think if you’re doing like design, like if within your portfolio, you’re giving a little bit of a backstory behind, like how this came about.
So people aren’t just looking at it like face value, you know, what, what brought it about, um, yeah, that was going
to be one of my tips was, um, show the customer journey also like. There’s a lot of places that call it just like a case study, but I like calling it a customer journey better. Um, Matt is, that is a big goal that I have for updating my own portfolio is instead of having just a gallery full of the dozens of various design things that I’ve done working really hard to maybe just feature like one dozen total.
Projects, but show it from beginning to end and show here’s where this started. Here’s how the concept and came to be, like you said, show them how I work, show them. And so I do have like that conversation when people want to have a consultation with me, I explained to them how I work and then we do that work, but I only have one or two as blog posts, client journey, stories of like, here’s how this project went.
And I think that that is something that people really want to see these days is okay. There’s so many designers that can do good work, but how do you work differently? Maybe you can all hand me like the same thing, but what is the. What is the experience like you said that you are going to hand me and that does work for designers too, not just like a photographer where you’re sitting with someone or a videographer or an artist or anything, but like graphic designers do provide an experience if you’re doing it right.
If you are not just doing a fiver, give me 50 bucks and I will, then two weeks later hand you a credit logo, like it should be. A journey with you understanding and communicating and all of that stuff. So absolutely agree that showing them like what the experiences you provide will totally set you apart from everybody else in your arena.
So the fact that I provide design strategy and brand strategy, and here’s how I do it. Here’s how it goes throughout. And here’s what you end up with is like a really big deal.
So, um, and that goes hand in hand with your messaging. So your messaging should be really strong and clear on that. And then your portfolio should back
it up.
Yeah. Big, nice circle of all the things that just one peer to hear them here to here and then here to here
and those case studies actually. So I haven’t actually implemented this yet, but it’s. An idea that I’ve had for awhile is, um, I want to make something like that to where it’s kind of like a blog post in that it has a lot of texts, but it starting out by saying, like, here’s what the clients told me, you know, that they were kind of wanting.
Here’s how I translated into ideas. Here’s how we translated it into an actual. Elopement day that really happened. And then like, here’s the timeline? Here’s where we went, what we did and here are the pictures from it. So you can literally see it from like where someone might be starting. If they go ahead and book you to the finished product, instead of just being like tonight, here’s the
finished product, right?
Yeah. And you know, it’s great to have testimonials and stuff like that, but when it’s attached to. Here’s where we started. Here’s how it went. Here’s the pictures. And here’s what they thought about it. Or here’s the brand package and here’s what they loved about it. It has a whole other level of impact and, um, sort of foundational backing up of you saying, I’m awesome.
It’s like, here’s this project. And they said, I’m awesome. Yeah,
well, and it’s showing them like the experience that they’ll have, like that’s their future if they work with you, uh, and that’s extremely popular or not popular, actually important to them. So, um, yeah, I think that that’s something I want to implement that I want to either have somewhere on my website that they can, that’s like pretty prominent or, um, after someone inquires with me, send that to them.
Before we have our first conversation. So hopefully they’ll even like be ready to book before I even speak a word to them. Yeah. Yeah,
absolutely. It’s, it’s a way to just basically sell yourself with more than just your end product work. And I think that that’s
really, and I, I also wanted to mention, like, if you’re a creative maker and you don’t have like a process, so to speak, like you’re not working with a client, like.
Let’s say you’re doing ceramic work or making jewelry, or like something like that where they’re like, people are just buying a physical project. I still think it’s super important to share your process, share the story behind things. Um, not just like when I was five, I dreamed about, you know, that kind of stuff, but like the story brand story, that’s showing them how you stand out, why working with you or buying your products is.
The better thing. And then also showing, you know, great show photos or videos of that work that you’re producing, but really just like show them the heart behind it. And, um, maybe something important. Like I use ingredients from local farmers or like this clay is blah, blah, blah. Like just something that sets you apart and like things that you know that somebody else might have no
idea.
Yeah. I mean, Right now when we’re recording this reels and Tik TOK is huge. And a lot of the really popular ones besides the sort of businessy, like here’s like some valuable info to be a better, whatever the other most popular ones are like the time-lapses and like the processes of how people work. It is absolutely fascinating and mesmerizing, and it’s very hard.
For someone to see something like that and not start to believe that you know what you’re doing. If you are willing to share your process, if you’re willing to show. Like you said, like here’s the ink I buy or here’s the tools I use or whatever, when you S when you do that, you bring people into your story and then they start to feel invested in you, and they are more likely to actually invest in you for your products or your services or whatever it is that you do.
So that’s a really good, that’s a really good one too, to wrap up is one show your process. Because you do have one and if you’ve never written it down, you should do that. And then go listen to my episode on process. So, um, so yeah, that’s our episode for today. So go now, update your portfolio, check on all the things, remove dates, add dates, whatever it is you feel is going to work for you.
And if you do update your portfolio, I highly suggest that you take like a screenshot or a screen record of your before. And then do the same once you’ve got it to like an updated place so that you can also feel like you’ve done some work because as just a small end note, Working on your website is never ending.
And when you do a big overhaul, because it does tend to happen in increments, by the time you’re done, you’re like, I didn’t do anything. It doesn’t even matter. But when you think about all the work that you’ve done and maybe what it looks like before, it’s really fulfilling and really energizing to go, oh my gosh, I did so much work.
It was worth it. So, all right. That’s our episode for today. Be sure to leave us a review on iTunes and as always, you can send us a note on Instagram at design speaks podcast, you can find all current and past episodes at design speaks. podcast.com. Design speaks. It’s produced by Kenneth Nithin and Stephanie Dakota cook.
Shout out to Colin from Vespertine. For our theme music design speaks is a project from me. Brandy C. It is recorded in the shadow of the watermelon pink Sandia mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico, as always. Thanks for listening. .
