087: A Pep Talk for Designers + Overcoming Self-Doubt

Get Back To Design: Design Business | Designer | Creative Business

So, this is a bit of a different episode than we normally record for you guys! A few months ago someone posted in our Facebook group about feeling down about herself because her path as a designer wasn’t the “traditional” path.

Kory here! Honestly, I’ve felt the same self-doubt from time to time in my own business. It doesn’t always stem from the fact that your path is different.

Today I wanted to do something different for this week’s episode and give you a bit of a pep talk plus some tips on overcoming self-doubt when it creeps in.

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Your Pep Talk

First and foremost, it’s important for me to remind you that everyone has moments like this. Not many people post on social media about not feeling that way, so it seems like our peers never feel doubt about their business or working with clients. That’s totally not true.

Regardless of whether you’re feeling doubt about your path as a designer, dealing with a bad client, or a slow period in your business, it doesn’t make you a bad person or a bad designer.

If your path to running your own design business is different…

Own it! It would be so dang boring if all of us had the same story and same path to running our business. A million times over I would rather my story be different and unique than blend in with everyone else.

If you have a bad client…

Remember we all have them! Sometimes you can learn from it and improve different parts of your business. However, sometimes you just have to chalk it up to a bad situation and move on.

If you have a slow period…

Use it as a chance to work on your business! Promote your services, improve your website, update your portfolio… the options are almost endless for what you can do when work is slow.

Overcoming Self Doubt

So what can you do when you’re feeling that doubt creep in? A few things!

Create a happy client folder

One of the best things you can do is to create a folder on your computer or in your inbox where you save kind words that you get from peers, clients, and more. This is a great thing you have so you can refer back to it on hard days!

Take a break from work

This is by far the easiest thing you can do when you’re feeling doubt about what you’re doing. Taking a break from your work can be as simple as going for a walk or taking some time to watch your favorite show. However, you can also take a weekend or a week off. Give yourself some space from your work so when you come back you’re excited to get started and feel creative again.

Connect with other people

Last, but certainly not least, connecting with other people really helps put self-doubt into perspective. Like I mentioned before, everyone shares the good stuff on social media, so connecting with other business owners helps put into perspective what other people are going through. Having Krista and my other online friends has been one of the greatest things I’ve had in the 7+ years of my business!

Action Steps

• Create a happy client folder with kind words that you can refer back to on difficult days

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