Underselling Ourselves When We Feel Undefined
May 15, 2013
Tara

What to say about the Braid Workshop? We brought together a fine group of creative entrepreneurs on an unusually cold spring Saturday a few weeks ago, including web developers, graphic designers, photographers, videographers, and still-trying-to-definers. 

One thread that ran through that productive day, is while everyone there was about their creative business – the day felt very personal.  Many of these creatives work solo, or with just one partner. So like most workshops and gatherings geared for a very particular “tribe” like this, it really becomes a cool way to come together and see the same stuff we’re all going through together.

And of all the “stuff” we’re dealing with, the big one that became apparent through the selling-yourself exercises and personal-branding conversations was this: all of us do way too much, with very fuzzy boundaries around what we are providing. So the not-so-stellar side effect of all this vision and not a lot of definition – is we creative, entrepreneurial, women (yes we were all gals that day) tend to overdeliver and overplease. While we undershare, undersell (and undercharge) on what we actually do.

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  • Traveling And Working As A Creative Entrepreneur
    May 02, 2013
    Kathleen
    When I worked as an art director at my nine-to-five job at an ad agency I would leave for a week of vacation with no concerns about work. (I was never what you would describe as a workaholic.) Tara, as a very important creative director, had the same policy – upper management and her team of designers and art directors, myself included, were given strict instructions to not call her while she was out of the office. Work was work, and vacation was vacation. The two shall remain separate and never meet. Tara and I have found many creatives work for themselves because travel is a priority – they insist on the flexibility to be able to set their own schedule and take time off without permission from upper management. But now I'm exploring the question of whether us creative entrepreneurs, myself included, have the flexibility (and balance) to travel and work – at the same time.
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  • When Your Creative Business Finally Feels Real
    April 25, 2013
    Tara
    Kathleen and I spent last weekend way up on a hilltop in the Austin hill country in the home of artist Alyson Fox, at a workshop hosted by The Jealous Curator. Well, Kathleen will tell you, the “jealous” part worked – at least at first arrival (hint: it had a lot to do with being in a glass house an artist designed and built up on a hilltop).  But as we talked and asked and answered and laughed (and maybe cried a little, just a little) with this group of women designers, painters, authors, bloggers and photographers, the question that kept coming up around this circle of working creatives had a lot less to do with wishing we had created something jealousy-worthy, and instead was this – when do you finally feel like a “real” artist? What does it take to get to that place where you say, “okay, this is really what I do now, and who I am, and how I make a living?”
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  • Get Hired For What You Really Do Instead of What You Almost Do
    April 17, 2013
    Liz & Tara
    We recently had an “a-ha!” moment after hearing one of our Braid Ecourse creative entrepreneurs, explain the difference between being understood (and hired) for what she “really” does, instead of misunderstood (and hired, yes, but perhaps not as happily) for what she “almost” does. Brooklyn-based wedding designer Michelle Edgemont is all about quirky, fun, modern wedding design, yet serious about defining her own business and expertise. This is her Dream Customer Catching ECourse takeaway:
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  • Shedworking On My Mind
    April 10, 2013
    Tara
    If you work for yourself, chances are you do a lot (if not all) of your work from home. In fact if you do work 100% from a home office you probably actually have a designated office room in your house. Like with a door. I bet though, many entrepreneurs who do office in a building, “somewhere else,” still do a lot of homeworking. Except you may be doing it all willy-nilly anywhere that your laptop will plug in (or sustain a feeble charge) on dining room table, couch, floor, bed, front porch, backyard. It just comes with the territory of, well, freedom.We are other people’s fantasy. But oh boy, do we have fantasies of our own. Or else we wouldn’t be the creative entrepreneurs (or aspiring-to-be’s). So my daydream right now is a shed. Yes, a shed. With a glass door, and a skylight, and a little slanted roof, and a little rock path from my back door and room enough for just a desk and a little space heater under my feet. Sound like a work-dream-space you could get behind?
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  • What To Expect At The Braid Workshop
    March 28, 2013
    Tara
    So the first Braid Workshop is coming up May 4, here on our home turf in Oklahoma City. We made a video to share a little more about what to expect you can watch here.  Our workshop is for creative entrepreneurs like photographers, designers, web developers, coaches, consultants, stylists, bloggers, writers, and marketers – out there on your own, selling what you do and sharing who you are.But, the problem is, you hate feeling salesy and you can't decide if you love or hate the overlap between what's business and what's personal. So our one day workshop is going to take you through some of our most helpful brand and business vision exercises that get down to what you should be sharing and selling.
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  • Is Your Dream Customer Just Like You or Opposite You?
    March 20, 2013
    Tara
    I’d say four out five creative entrepreneurs we work with come to the realization that their dream customer is really not that different than themselves. They are cut from the same cloth – they like the same brands, they seek the same adventures, want the same feeling from life and work as you do. And sometimes their work is very similar to yours.  That can be worrisome, because then you start to think “wait, what am I bringing to the table if my ideal client can basically do this for themselves for free?” Or what you do is so in the vein of their work/life, that they are surrounded by peers or friends (who they already know). You might ask “why would they pay for this creative service from me?”Then there’s that one creative entrepreneur we work with that comes to a big revelation: their dream customer is actually the complete opposite of them.  And they like it that way. Their dream engagement is helping someone see the “other side.” But a problem for them is sharing content or knowledge that resonates enough with a dream customer to attract their attention and earn their trust – because the service they provide is coming from a completely opposite perspective.  So when your dream engagement is with a client “just like you,” how do you sell what you bring to the table? On the flip-side, when your client is your opposite, how do you share your appreciation for where they’re coming from? 
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  • Braid Workshop: How to Share YOU and Sell What You DO
    March 06, 2013
    Tara & Kathleen
    Creative Entrepreneurs love and hate the overlap – the blended in-between of work and life, of what’s personal and what’s business, of what’s simply talent-for-hire and what they can really be known for. This overlap can be really clarifying or incredibly confusing. Usually both.  But the overlap is never more painful or powerful than in your content.You can think of the content you share as specifically how you blog, or post, or tweet or even structure your offerings – but on a more basic level, it’s all just a part of how you talk, write, sell and explain what you’re all about, to your followers and friends, to your peers and collaborators, to your dream customers and yourself. Think of your content like a two-sided tag:- One side is your gift tag: how you share yourself. - The other side is the price tag: how you sell what you do.So our Braid Workshop is about the two sides of your creative entrepreneur story. What are you giving away, what are you getting paid for, what is the blended tone for both, and what do you have to really say that is going to help you not only cultivate a more memorable personal brand but really explain your expertise?
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  • Considering A Coworking Space
    March 01, 2013
    Liz
    Coworking spaces are starting to pop up all over the country, and they’re a great, inexpensive option for creative entrepreneurs. A cross between a cozy coffee shop and an open-concept office, these community-driven spaces encourage collaboration and offer both structure and flexibility for their members. You’ve probably heard of a place like this in your town or city – and then you start hearing about it everywhere. For us this conversation around coworking really ramped on the heels of a  Creative Entrepreneur letter from Tara. (Have you guys signed up for those yet? You should.) She was debating – or musing, rather, with lots of Downton Abbey-inspired metaphors – Braid’s current home-office situation vs. a potential “real” office scenario. She was raising a lot of really valid points, like: How much flexibility can we really thrive within? How much structure do we secretly crave? How many cat butts can our clients really handle in their face when we’re meeting at Kathleen’s dining table? 
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  • The One Question We Always Ask Creative Business Couples
    February 21, 2013
    Tara
    Tara here. We’ve been working with a lot of creative couples lately – as in married people or couples in serious relationships, who’ve turned their common vision into a business.Yes, they’ve done this to themselves on purpose.Does that sound cynical? Well, if you already work with your plus-one, you would most likely say that it’s very rewarding, but it’s also no picnic. But, if you don’t work with your mate, you might fall into two camps:
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  • A Personal Brand Exercise For Sharing Yourself Online
    February 13, 2013
    Kathleen
    I’ve got a worksheet for you try out today, the Online You Sharing Spectrum. We developed it while working on our Personal Branding Braid ECourse – but I’m sharing this one exercise out of all the others – well, partly as a sneak peek into the course, but also I think this exercise in particular really helps creative entrepreneurs work through two things I’ve been noticing from our clients more than ever lately:1. They all have this deep desire to more accurately and authentically share who they really are 2. But they’re scaredIt can be confusing and overwhelming knowing what to share and how to share it when you’re at a dinner with friends – much less when you have the entire world at your fingertips. But I think nothing is more beautiful or powerful than getting to create an online space that’s so perfectly you, where you can capture, shape, and share who you are and what you’re all about. I do believe getting clear on your boundaries and creating within your limitations will make you more comfortable, and creative, with genuinely sharing who you are online.  Read on for the downloadable worksheet to start defining those boundaries, along with takeaway tips to begin more confidently sharing within those parameters. 
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  • Capture, Shape, and Share with Instagram
    February 07, 2013
    Kathleen
    (If you’re reading this post through an RSS feed or email be sure to click through to watch the video.) You guys may already know that we’re huge fans of Instagram. But lately we’ve found ourselves recommending it more and more to our creative entrepreneur clients. Instagram is an awesome way to visually connect with your friends, network with potential dream customers or brand advocates, and “show your tell”. But it’s also a great way capture, shape, and share who you are, and what you do – in a consistent, curated, behind-the-scenes of your life and work kind of way. Instagram is great for creatives like life coaches and consultants who aren’t necessarily photographers or designers, but still want to show of their goods, and their personal brand in a visual way, and look good doing it.So this is how I, myself, and Braid’s creative entrepreneur clients, are using Instagram to capture, shape and share their business and personal brand. Now “capture, shape and share” is a three step approach I talk about a lot, especially when it comes to my blogging strategy (for both my personal blog and the Braid blog.) But really, you can just as easily overlay those three principles to a platform like Instagram – like a microblog approach I mention below (but with less writer’s block). 
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  • How Stefan Sagmeister Blew My Mind
    January 31, 2013
    Kathleen
    This was my third year to attend Alt Summit – a conference held in Salt Lake City for design bloggers. Just a few months prior I was hemming and hawing over whether I wanted to go or not but I ultimately decided to show up and be seen. And when I received an email saying that my design idol Stefan Sagmeister would be giving a keynote, I knew it was meant to be. If you’re not familiar, Stefan Sagmeister is a legend in the design community for his packaging and design work for amazing musicians like Lou Reed and David Byrne. He’s notorious for carving event details into his own skin with an Xacto for an AIGA event. And more recently he sparked some attention for posing naked with Jessica Walsh to announce their new business partnership. Needless to say, I have a huge crush. Through college I used to fantasize about moving to NYC and working 80 hours a week for Stefan Sagmeister but then I got overwhelmed, scared, and tired. It was much easier to stay put.
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  • When Your Spouse Is Your Creative Business Partner
    January 23, 2013
    Kathleen
    One of the coolest things about being a creative entrepreneur is that all rules and standards of a traditional nine-to-five day job are thrown out the window. For example, we don’t have to work nine-to-five. And the word “nepotism” is replaced with “collaboration”.  In fact, working with family can act as a shortcut to solving problems and growing your business faster than you can imagine. I first started working with Tara at an ad agency. We were often self-conscious about the fact that we were siblings and tried to play down our sisterly sympatico when it came to our working relationship. But now, as creative entrepreneurs and business partners we see this as one of our biggest strengths. We haven’t worked with any sibling teams (yet) we have had the pleasure of working with a few of husband / wife duos. So while we often refer to our Braid Method as “brand therapy”, when it comes to working with spouses sometimes it feels a bit like marriage counseling too. It’s fascinating to see how aligned and in-synch these couples are – and it’s equally as interesting to see where the disconnects in business vision surface – and helping them bridge those gaps.
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  • The Art of Growth
    January 16, 2013
    Kathleen
    When I first quit my nine-to-five job in advertising to strike out on my own as a freelance graphic designer, my number one priority was being able to pay the bills working for myself. I had this grand fantasy of tending to my veggie garden in the middle of the day and designing work that would spread across Pinterest like wildfire. That fantasy quickly became a reality, but I still didn’t feel fulfilled or satisfied. I felt somewhat scattered and aimless. I lacked purpose until I started a blog series called Freelance Matters – I openly shared my insecurities and victories as well as very specific tips on everything from managing client relationships to creating an effective to-do list. I found that by putting it all out there I was attracting my tribe – other creative entrepreneurs. They were asking me for advice, sharing their experiences and even hiring me to help them. A year later Tara quit her job as an executive VP creative director to join forces with me. When we first started Braid Creative we had a couple of specific goals in mind. Those goals were as follows: 
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  • How Are You Showing Your Tell?
    January 08, 2013
    Liz
    Liz here. We definitely have word-weaving and message-crafting on the brain at Braid this week. A lot to do with the second offering of the Braid ECourse: "Shape Up Your Content: Tame Your Ideas and Tell People How to Buy You." So why have Tara and Kathleen asked me to share my point-of-view and perhaps a few helpful pointers for creatives on sharing content through visuals – as opposed to only the written word? Well, I can certainly appreciate (and aspire to create) simple, memorable statements in lieu of those daunting “one thousand words” when it makes sense to do so. And, this shouldn’t really come as a surprise, but some enrollees of the messaging-focused Ecourse last time around, requested a little more insight into shaping their image-based content (the ECourse itself peppered with infographics, photos, and videos).For visual people, sometimes it just makes more sense to share images more often than words. You can usually articulate something – a feeling, a sense of place, a moment in time –  that words would only begin to describe. Plus writing is hard! Sometimes “the telling” can feel contrived coming from someone who could nail the same sentiment with a single, well-art-directed image (or a quick candid video, or a tricked-out infographic).  What are some ways to create a consistency over time with those images that clues people into the fact that this content is coming from... you?
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