What are successful people doing?

If you didn't already know, I am a huge fan of Dave Ramsey and the EntreLeadership team. Chris Hogan posted this great article, "10 Characteristics of Highly Successful People", check it out below. Maybe even ask yourself "Which one of these I can intentionally think about, or put into practice this next week"?

"Everyone wants to be successful. Nobody writes an essay in third grade about becoming a lousy business owner or a mediocre teacher. But what separates an average person from the best in their field? Successful people demonstrate similar traits and behaviors. Identifying them is easy. Putting them into practice is the challenge." - Chris Hogan

No one likes to be around pessimists—except other pessimists. Successful people keep a positive outlook. They expect good outcomes. They see the possibilities in a situation instead of the problems. They are convinced they deserve to be on the playing field and can come out as the winner.
Successful people are imaginative. They tinker with projects and ideas. They constantly ask questions. They dream, imagine and have a habit of saying, “What if . . . ?” They are open-minded and eager to discover what’s just over the horizon. This curiosity keeps them from becoming stagnant and complacent, two enemies of success.
Achieving success is tough; if it weren’t, everybody would do it! High achievers get back up when they get knocked down. They shake off the dust and try again. Like Disney, Edison and other historymakers, successful people will not be denied.
Hardworking. Successful leaders keep at it when others go home. They go the extra mile, make that extra call, and tackle that extra step. At the same time, they know how to have fun in the process. They still spend time with family and take care of their emotional, spiritual and physical health.
Emotionally mature. Few volatile leaders become successful. Those who lead well can stay calm under stress. They understand the value of responding rather than reacting. They recognize when their emotions are getting out of control and practice good strategies for handling them.
People are drawn to highly successful leaders. They are charismatic, warm, respectful, open, and engaging. They have a knack for making others feel valued and heard. This may be difficult for strong leaders who are focused on getting the job done, but developing this skill is critical to success.
Someone once said, “Your network is your net worth.” Successful people learn to develop business relationships with others. You don’t have to be the loudest person in the room, but you can introduce yourself and exchange information. You never know when that little interaction could pay off big-time!
Successful people own their mistakes. They don’t shift blame, and they don’t find excuses. They find solutions. They admit what they did wrong, do what they can to correct it, and learn from it. They know they’ll make mistakes, but failure doesn’t have the last word.
It’s easy to get sidetracked by the trivial. If you’re not careful, you’ll spend valuable time on distractions that don’t help you reach your goals. Successful people concentrate on those tasks that line up with their mission and vision.
Successful leaders are willing to try different tactics. They chart new courses and are willing to change the game plan. They don’t cling to processes or people who aren’t working anymore. They’re okay with letting go.

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He came for you. He is good. He is Faithful. He is strong. He is the King.
He is making all thing new.

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The Magnolia Market Fall Workshop 2015

The Fall season welcomes cooler weather, leaves begin to change and the eager stirring of holidays soon to be celebrated bring a smile to most. My first fall project of the year was for Magnolia's Fall Workshop. Joanna Gaines of HGTV's Fixer Upper hosted a workshop where fans near and far could come enjoy a night with Joanna and her staff. I wanted to loosely illustrate Joanna's fresh, simple and yet "hand-touched" aesthetic that you see in her interior design throughout each piece of the marketing collateral for this event. Therefor I chose simple colors, added in some wood textures and created a few decorative graphics (wreath, leaf, and branch cluster) to incorporate throughout. The first pieces were printed cards to have in the Magnolia Market and web graphics to advertise and sell tickets online. Wether through the web graphics or the printed materials, each guest needed to be visually engaged enough to want to purchase a ticket and attend the event. Welcome packets were mailed out to each guest, welcoming them to Waco, sharing places to visit while here, and communicated the details of the event. Since these pieces were their first glimpse of the workshop, it was important that the right first impression was made. "All are welcome", "Come as you are", and " Warm relationships" is what I wanted to communicate to each guest as they looked through their packet. Once they arrived in Waco, familiar paper goods were waiting for them in their hotel room and sprinkled throughout the event. I enjoy designing work where I can be really specific to the client. Being brought in to design the pieces for Magnolia's Fall Workshop allowed me to do that.

Speaking of catering to the specific look of a client, these custom notecards are a perfect example of that. A lot of my clients have a specific style, look, and "brand"...even my brides. Getting to create paper goods that represent them or their brand that they can also practically use is a win for everyone.

Inbound Marketing 2015

So... how many of you have heard of Inbound, a huge marketing conference put on by HubSpot? Honestly, I hadn't heard of it until one of my dear clients decided to send me to Boston, MA to go check it out. 14,000 people from around the world (literally) gathered for 4 days to take in 200 speakers, hours of content marketing tips, and learn from some of the top industry leaders in marketing, design and content creation.

After the opening keynote, each day has a list of about 40 different speakers to choose from, and only 5-6 breakout slots to fill your day... I'm telling you, it's crazy! Although there were so many options to choose from, I was able to pack my day full of sessions that either related to design and brand messaging or over all marketing strategy to grow your business. I plan on sharing some tidbits from these sessions with you, over the next couple of months, in hope that is becomes helpful knowledge to you as well.

My first bit is from the amazing SCOTT STRATTEN of UnMarketing.com | UnPodcast , named one of the top 5 social media influencers in the world on Forbes.com.

Man oh man, not only is he hilarious in a very dry and witty way, but he has years of experience, and is full of wisdom and truth when it comes to viral marketing. He talked a lot about ethics and integerity when it comes to this world of take, take, take, consume, consume, consume, post, post, post. I recommend listening to his podcast, not only to laugh, but also to grow and be challenged.

Here a few takeaways I jotted down, which are also worth sharing :

FOLLOWERS /LIKES/GOING VIRAL
- You want the RIGHT views/followers - numbers don’t matter
- Find the RIGHT views/followers, which platforms is your audience on?
- Viral = EVOKING EMOTION (funny, heartfelt, unexpected, etc.) which means people
   REACT or share it. People SHARE emotion
- Viral/Going Viral means nothing unless it’s effecting your bottom line/costumer base

MARKETING ETHICS/CONTENT THEFT
- When you aren’t giving credit, you are taking credit (photos, quotes, content)
- Integrity is NOT a renewable resource, once it’s compromised you don’t get it back,
  SO give credit where credit is due on the content that you are posting about and sharing
- Don’t be the FIRST to put content out, be RIGHT first
- Always think : “Is what I’m about to do going to be worth it” integrity wise,
  will my “comments” shut someone or some business down
- Market to others, the way you want to be marketed to

Provenance Soapworks

This beautiful project came to me all the way from the historic district of St. Charles, Missouri! The owners of this endearing soap shop were in need for new branding that could visually communicate their handcrafted bushiness. Through my process of getting to know each client and their specific needs and desires I was able to nail down a few "aesthetic themes" as a starting place. "Modern apothecary", "natural ingredients", "classic", "elegant" and "clean", were all important descriptions that needed to be represented in this logo. My client also wanted to incorporate foliage of some kind into their visual branding, so I sketched out a few leaves and branches to help associate the "natural ingredients" part of their products. As I started sketching I realized I wanted the foliage piece to be neutral, not too fall, winter, or spring. It was important to create a logo that could easily brand their business, their regular product line, and their seasonal line without going over board one way or the other.
I love when clients want and understand the value of additional branding elements to go along side their logo. In this case PS (short for Provenance Soapworks) is an element they use quite often on their products and throughout their store. I came up with two different designs for the PS, one simple almost like a mark or seal that they could actually stamp into their products, and the other more whimsical and elegant.
I look forward to seeing the many new and classic products Provenance Soapworks will roll out over the coming years, knowing they have a branding that will withstand the test of time.

In it, to win it!

Of course, at the end of the day the goal of this project was to help Stephanie get elected and grab a seat on the Waco ISD school board. (Which she did. Yay!) I played the role of creating some great eye-catching and consistent marketing material for her campaign.

From the beginning it was important that whatever she put out for the public to see needed to be noticed, relatable, and memorable. I wanted it to have a different look and feel from the typical red and blue political campaign, but not go too far out there. The first idea I came up with was to communicate her "resume" to the public using simple graphics and attractive colors so that her target audience would be visually interested and engaged. Everything I created needed to be attractive to both students in the school district, teenagers, parents and teachers. It was important that no matter who came across Stephanie's campaign material, they could relate to it in some way.

I thought it was important to have her picture and first name on everything from yard signs to direct mailers to her social media content. The reason being was in most political campaigns, the candidates are referred to by their last name, which is usually the most prominent focus, and doesn't naturally create a sense of "knowing the person". I decided to go a different direction with the vision being personal, approachable, memorable, and friendly. Therefore, we used Stephanie's first name and photo as the more prominent focus of this campaign, with the hope that it would draw people in and create more "personal, memorable" interaction. My motivation behind it was, when it came time for the public to vote (whether they knew Stephanie or not) they would be more inclined to vote for "Stephanie" – the friendly, approachable, contributor to the community that they had become acquainted with through her campaign material.

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Just a little reminder that we have the power (whether we feel it or not) to choose.

To choose to accept yourselves on the "perfect", and not so perfect days. To choose peace amongst the busyness of life. To choose a positive mindset over the bombarding negative thoughts, and to choose to view life from all perspectives and then decide to be grateful.

Download and enjoy your little reminder to choose and allow yourself to enjoy each day as it comes, and for what it is.

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Here & There : Snippets from the Week

Graphic Design can imply many different things, and I am blessed to work on a variety of projects. This past week, the title "graphic designer" meant : creating playful illustrations, mocking up a website layout, editing some photography, designing a couple vehicle wraps, creating and curating the look and feel of a endowment campaign, as well as researching and presenting bid on a large project.

Never a dull moment!