Design and Shine

As 2023 comes to a close, I reflect back on the huge changes that I made in my business this year in this final podcast episode before I take an extended summer break at the beach with my family and new puppy. I share my process of looking back to assess my goals, how I question my progress, and why I believe it's so important to take time to do this reflection work when you run a creative business. A few questions that I ask myself that may be as important to you as they are to me are: Did I create more space in my life for practicing my art? Did I streamline and simplify my business to remove overcomplicated processes? Does my business align with my creative and lifestyle goals? How did this year's goals compare to the previous year's goals? Did I create less or more hustle in my life this past year? What will next year's goals be and how will I go about achieving them? Listen to this episode of the Design & Shine podcast to hear my personal answers to these questions and more! And I'd love to hear how you went with your 2023 goals too! Did you achieve your goals? Why or why not? What are your 2024 goals?  Come let me know on my Facebook or Instagram accounts where I'll be checking in over the holidays before Season 3 of the podcast begins next year!  Until then, have a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year! 

When I left full-time employment as a surface pattern designer, I could not understand why I found it so incredibly difficult to design with the same confidence and ease as I did for my clients... Despite years of design experience and confidence working to a design brief, when I decided to work for myself I immediately fell into a ''surviving creative'' mentality, and everything began to feel so. much. harder! It took a massive shift in how I thought about myself and my ability to design before I was able to grow a successful surface pattern design business. ⚡️ But once I did the deeper work of changing my ''surviving identity'' beliefs, I was able to quickly grow my business to my first $100k and have not looked back since! 💃 So in this week's episode of the Design & Shine podcast, I share my story of how I overcame my lack of confidence and fears about my design abilities to finally get momentum in my creative business. It's an important step that I believe every creative person needs to make to shift out of a ''surviving identity'' into a ''thriving identity.'' I hope you enjoy it!

Recently, my family and I invited a new member into the family - a PUPPY!!! ​​His name is Juno. And while it's been a LOT of fun these last few weeks getting to know him, it hasn't been as much fun training him not to wee in the house! 😅 But it has been interesting to watch him learn. It's made me reflect on​​ how - with anything new we learn - our brains need to be 'trained' just like my Juno's.  I know mine did when I first started my creative business years ago... I had to 'train' my brain to overcome my self-doubt about whether or not I could reach success as a surface pattern designer and artist. That self-doubt, self-sabotage, and lack of confidence come from hidden, subconscious beliefs that we're often not even aware of until we do the deeper work of looking for them and examining them. ​ These are our limiting beliefs, and if you've ever felt stuck, frustrated with your lack of progress, or filled with doubt that you could ever make it as a creative (which ALL of us have, of course!) then you know exactly what it feels like to have them! ​​​​ So in this week's episode of the Design & Shine podcast, I explore what limiting beliefs are and how they might be holding you back from the creative success you desire - and how to get started overcoming them!🎤🎧

While our creativity is a beautiful expression of our own personal unique gifts and ideas, it can also carry with it a lot of things that can end up hindering our progress... Things like criticism, self-doubt, and perfectionism. So in this week's Design & Shine podcast episode, I explore why it's important to cultivate and nurture self-compassion. I share my thoughts on: What having self-compassion as a creative means  Why it can help us progress in our creative practice How not having it can hurt us and keep us stuck What having self-compassion requires and how to nurture it! So listen to this episode and start nurturing your self-compassion so that you can continue to grow and thrive as an artist today!  🎤🎧

If you love what you're creating but you're facing a lot of failures, rejections, resistance, and you're hearing ''no thank-you'' so often, you may start to wonder how you're going to keep going... How are you going to stay persistent if you're constantly facing obstacles? This is what I want to explore with you in this episode: The power of staying persistent and how you can learn some practical strategies that will help you keep at it! I'll share tips on: How to maintain a positive mindset about failure and rejection  How to turn a ''no'' into an opportunity to improve and grow When to seek feedback or help from others How to stay committed to your goal yet also stay adaptable to change How to keep moving forward when you're feeling defeated! So listen to this episode to get your mind back on track if you've been feeling like giving up on your art recently!

I believe many creatives underestimate how helpful gratitude can be toward helping them reach success... It's a simple mindset shift that can make a BIG difference - if you know how to use it in how you approach your creative work. I share several ways you can start practicing gratitude in your creative business in this week's Design & Shine podcast episode, including: How to use gratitude to increase your daily inspiration, creative ideas, and new possibilities Ways that gratitude can help you overcome setbacks and failures in your business Why gratitude can help you grow into a thriving, successful creative artist with an authentic voice and style How it can also help you better connect with your audience and respond to their interest and feedback in a way that helps you, rather than letting it get you down!  Listen to this episode and start practicing more gratitude in your creative business today!

Are you a Visual, Auditory, or Kinesthetic learner? Not sure what those are? Listen to this episode of The Design & Shine podcast to find out! I dive into what these 3 different learning styles mean and share how to tell which one you may be.  Knowing which one is your predominant learning style may help you get better outcomes with your creative work, including how you absorb, process, and understand what you are learning.  You'll finally understand why some people can't read maps, listen to directions, or need to DO something before they can understand it! 

I used to struggle to show up online in the way that I knew I needed to for my business... I consciously knew I needed to create videos, take selfies, and be visible to my audience... But subconsciously, the idea of showing up online made me feel vulnerable, exposed, and unsafe. And I wasn't even aware that this was the case until I started to address the hidden subconscious beliefs that were holding me back! So in this episode of Design & Shine podcast, I share how powerful it can be to address the underlying subconscious beliefs that may be hiding from your conscious awareness, keeping you safe by playing small. I also share how it's possible to reprogram these beliefs so that you can do the things that you consciously have always wanted to do - but couldn't! And why doing that can be one of the keys to helping become a thriving creative! ️

Do you worry that your creative work is just not all that unique? And do you worry that it'll never stand out and allow you to have the thriving creative career that you dream about?😣 It's a challenging belief, but what I've noticed lately is that it's the most common limiting belief among creative entrepreneurs. So in this episode of the Design & Shine Podcast, I share some strategies you can use that may help you SHIFT this belief.   Get my FREE quiz to help you identify your #1 limiting belief here:  https://patternanddesign.com/quiz  

Are you putting a lot of pressure on yourself to make things PERFECT? Many creatives I know get stuck on trying to make even the smallest design details perfect.  It slows down their progress as a creative designer and as a business owner.  So in this Design & Shine podcast episode, I share a few tips on how to overcome perfectionism including: Launching a new website Making mistakes and flaws in the creative process Overcoming fear of judgment Taking faster and more frequent action in your work and in your creative business Plus many more tips and strategies to help you have a better way of thinking about your work and your creative business so that you can get closer to your goals with realistic expectations you can work toward. 🌟 

In this episode, we unravel what procrastination really is, revealing its surprising connection to fear.  I'll explain how procrastination might be rooted in your apprehensions about failure, judgment, or even success.  I share practical strategies to conquer procrastination: break tasks into bite-sized chunks to tackle overwhelm and embrace imperfection as a stepping stone to growth.  And I'll explain why my mantra, "Done is better than perfect," can help you challenge the pursuit of flawlessness and help you take action! This episode will guide you to recognize fear-driven procrastination, shift your perspective on what it means, and help your creative growth.  Tune in to this episode of the Design and Shine podcast to transform your creative process and build the thriving creative business you've been dreaming of!

If you'd like to unlock your true creative potential and build a thriving creative business, you may be surprised to learn just how important it is to develop compassion and resilience. As creatives, we're often quite sensitive people, so expressing ourselves through our art can be quite a vulnerable thing to do when we begin to put ourselves out into the world with our creative businesses.  So in this episode of The Design & Shine podcast, I cover the importance of self-compassion and resilience in your creative journey. Key takeaways you'll learn from this episode include how to: Embrace imperfection and let go of the pressure for everything to be perfect. Overcome self-criticism and negative thought patterns that hinder your creative flow. Build a strong sense of self-worth independent of external validation. Develop a growth mindset to view setbacks as opportunities for learning and growth. Cultivate perseverance and inner strength on your creative path. Tune in to the full episode for invaluable insights and tips to transform your creative life! 

If you want true and lasting change in your life, it's not enough just to know what your limiting beliefs are... You also need to how to change them so that you make the changes in your life that you want to see! So in this episode of The Design & Shine Podcast, I share: What limiting beliefs are and how they hold us back, influence us, and shape our realities Where limiting beliefs reside in our minds and why you may not even know you have them One crazy thing about limiting beliefs that will help you change them into new and empowering beliefs Listen to this episode to find out what it takes to begin to change your limiting beliefs and learn how to make true and lasting changes in your life!

Recently a student of mine came to me and said she was feeling uninspired and having a hard time knowing how to get started designing. It wasn't that she didn't want to do the work, but that when she sat down to do it, nothing would come from it. I've felt this way many times myself, and if you're a creative artist of any kind, you've probably felt uninspired from time to time as well. So in this episode of The Design & Shine podcast, I share my best tips on how to get inspired to get into a creative flow when you're just not feeling it happening for you. I talk about why it's so important to calm your parasympathetic nervous system down and how to do that through specific techniques that I've personally practiced and find extremely helpful when I'm feeling stuck.  And how sometimes, there's a strange paradox in that the more you may want to do creative work, the less creative you may be feeling! 

Imagine if you could STOP overthinking your creative design work... No more being critical of your work... No more stopping and starting over... Just intuitive creativity that makes time feel like it has stopped and your artistic output flow... Sounds good, right? This is what's known as a creative flow state, and in creative work like surface pattern design, getting into it comes with some amazing advantages for your design work and business. So in this episode, I focus on what happens when we get into a creative flow state and why it feels so good! Plus, I share some of the rituals and tips that I personally use to help myself get into a creative flow state so that you can try them out yourself.    

There's a specific difference in thinking between surface pattern designers who get stuck and those who thrive... One way of thinking will keep you playing small, while the other will help you to grow as an artist, elevate your design process, and earn more from your business in the long term. Find out what that difference is in this episode of the Design & Shine podcast and learn how you can start to shift your thinking to help you begin to thrive as a surface pattern designer.  And if you're ready to make this shift and elevate your creative process, come and join my new Elevation Program! 

If you struggle with pricing your surface pattern design work you are not alone! It can be one of the hardest things to do when you are just getting started as a surface pattern designer, which is why pricing is one of the most common topics my students ask me about. So in this episode of The Design & Shine Podcast, I give you some guidelines for how to price your work based on my personal experience including how to price: Design work Artwork Digital products Custom design work Your time as a service provider, consultant, or mentor I also bust some common myths around pricing and value that many people mistakenly believe. ⚡️  

Are you worried that the surface pattern design market may be too oversaturated?  This is a common concern that many of my surface pattern design students have, so I've shared my thoughts about it on this episode of The Design & Shine Podcast. I cover: How not to be taken advantage of in a crowded market Ensuring your work will stand out in an authentic way Having the right business mindset to build a successful surface pattern design business And the one personal quality that distinguishes those designers who make it and those who give up!   

No matter what kind of creative business owner you are, whether you are a surface pattern design business owner or not, you're often told there are certain ways you need to do things... And though you want to be successful and this external advice can be quite convincing - it's not always the right thing for YOU to do. This is what happened to me with my surface pattern design business last year... So in this episode of The Design & Shine podcast, I wanted to share my story with you and why I am changing the direction of my business going forward.        

In this episode of the Design and Shine podcast, I welcome back Christine Rice, who is a social media manager for online businesses and she also runs a fantastic small Facebook group called marketing for creative and unconventional women. Christine and I talk all about a hot topic that I know a lot of surface pattern designers have trouble with and that is writing captions for your social media posts. We cover: branding and why it's much more than just the fonts and colours you use how to get write engaging captions  using content pillars with your copywriting  tips for structuring successful captions creating something relatable and interesting that also connects with the audience you're writing for using storytelling to engage with your audience Plus much more! Click here if you would like to join Christine’s free Facebook group community