Episode 43: Inside The Life Of A Designer

Lauren is the owner, designer and creative entrepreneur behind L. Rae Design. After attending college for Fine Art and Communication Design, Lauren moved almost 500 miles south to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and quickly started her career as a project manager for a renowned underwater photographer. She honed her design, consulting and social media skills, regularly working with national and international companies and brands before moving to Upstate New York and going out on her own.

Today she’s a brand strategist, designer, and creative consultant. You can find her right outside the Adirondack Park working away in her home office – (black) coffee *always* in hand. Her style is relaxed and refined, perfectly undone. It’s natural and real with a little something extra.

Embrace Your Fears:

Starting out on your own can be super scary. There are all those fears that you will fail that you won’t make enough money to pay your bills, that people will laugh at you, that you just don’t have what it takes to cut it. If you’ve ever felt afraid about any of those things then you are not alone. Any new business owner (and some seasoned business owners) feel those things at some point. However, Lauren likes to approach those feelings of fear in an unconventional way.

She shared that that fear is a necessary part of the journey to becoming a business owner. It can kind of guide you and your decisions because it means that you care and that you are putting a lot of thought into what you’re doing. if you’re just overly confident, then you run the risk of making rash decisions or thinking that you have nothing to learn. A healthy fear of what’s ahead can be a motivation as well as a sign that you actually care a lot about this new venture!

Utilize The Tools That Will Help You Stay Connected To Your Clients:

If you are a digital nomad, a freelancer or if you work from home, your client communication is bound to change. You aren’t meeting in person that often and sometimes your client might even be states (or countries) away. Even though the face to face interaction is always great to help build that relationship, there are so many tools at our disposal these days that you can still create a great client experience virtually.

Lauren sets up numerous online tools when she first starts working with a client so the communication is seamless. She likes to use tools like Dropbox, Google Hangouts, Google Drive and more to make sure that her clients feel in the loop and so that she can stay connected to then no matter where she is.

Just because you CAN be connected at all times, doesn’t mean you SHOULD:

Like most new business owners, Lauren struggled with being assertive with her clients about her working hours. She was so eager to work and create good relationships she would give in if a client contacted her outside her set business hours. The way Lauren handled that situation as to tell her clients that they are always free to reach out at any time if they have ideas of questions, but if it’s after 5 PM or before 8 AM then she will most likely wait to respond until the next business day unless it’s an emergency.