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Do you know what success means to you? It doesn’t have to directly tie to profit in your business, but finding clarity around your definition of success is life-giving in your business. In today’s episode, Adrienne Johnston joins us to share her experience in defining success in her own business, while explaining the value in defining that success based on an individual’s experience and needs.
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Adrienne is a presentation designer who specializes in helping clients visualize their content in PowerPoint for the purpose of landing new clients, educating existing internal or external clients, or securing investment capital.
With 15 years of experience in Marketing and Operations for small and mid-sized businesses, she understands the challenges of the keeping your audience engaged during a meeting – and the importance of doing so in order to reach your objectives. Her clients include Meta, Microsoft, Samsung and Marriott.
The Power of Creating Clarity Around Your Specific Definition of Success
When Adrienne first started her career, she was chasing a dream that other people had set for her. She was taking any type of client work she could get, constantly working, and wasn’t finding the freedom she wanted. This led to her building a business that she hated, sending her on a journey to finding clarity in the success she wanted.
Imposter syndrome truly can take over in your business when you feel like you need to focus on what is bringing other people success. You can get focused on the wrong things—essentially forcing yourself to fail at the idea of success you actually have.
Once Adrienne started her own journey into her career, she started to find her own path to clarity for success. If you’ve followed someone online and dreamt of their success, ask yourself why? But also ask yourself if the success they have achieved is actually want you want or if it’s just the idea of succeeding in your own business that you desire. Then you can find clarity in what success means to you.
Clarifying Your Dreams Exercise
Adrienne once heard a psychologist share this exercise: Imagine looking into a crystal ball and seeing what your life looks like in 10 years—where do you see yourself? What limitations are holding you back from achieving this? What fuels you? Brainstorm what you like and don’t like in your business.
That clarity can help define your goals and plans for today.
How to Create Clarity to Anchor Your Success
While it is easy to let your limitations take over and keep you from achieving your success—there are a few considerations that will ground you in anchoring to your idea of success.
- Listen to your instincts in regards to your boundaries.
- Be proactive up front so you’re not adjusting or cleaning up on the back end.
- Forgive yourself for past decisions that don’t currently align with serving you.
You have the opportunity to grow within your business through boundaries and holding onto your idea of success. In every decision, you are exercising your decision-making muscles to train you to make them better long-term. This will take time in practicing and growing.
The Shift in Success Clarity
Your idea of success will not always be the same—you’re allowed to shift it and change it ass you grow in your business and life. Your success when you first start, likely won’t match the success you want to achieve years later. As you find those shifts, you have the permission to celebrate those successes and even the shifts!
If you’re not already, consider setting aside time to check in on your goals and successes so you can review that growth. For Adrienne, it often happens in her therapy sessions where she likes to talk through work. If you’re not doing that, you can even check in with your business bestie.
Encouragement in Defining Your Success
Adrienne’s advice to entrepreneurs who are looking to define their own success is “Don’t be afraid to dream big and taking action on those dreams.” Having dreams can scare you and hold you back, but you shouldn’t let that stop you from chasing those dreams.
Catch the Show Notes
Get to Know Adrienne (2:18)
Does Your Business Serve You? (7:42)
Anchoring Yourself to Your Clarity in Success (16:56)
The Shift in Success Clarity (24:48)
CONNECT WITH ADRIENNE
linkedin.com/in/adriennebentleyjohnston
instagram.com/adriennebjohnston
facebook.com/adriennebjohnston
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Review the Transcript:
Speaker 1:
Hi, friend, and welcome to the Brand Strategy Podcast, a show created to equip you with the inspiration, encouragement, and clarity unique to build a brand of your dreams. I’m your host, Bonnie bti, brand designer, strategist, and founder of the Illumina Tree, from sustainable strategy to heartfelt encouragement. Each episode is designed to equip you with the tools you need to chase after your dreams, because you deserve a brand that empowers you to do what you love, connects with your dream clients, and offers a deep sense of fulfillment along the way. So grab cup of coffee and join me on this journey, won’t you
Bonnie:
Friends, Welcome back to the Brand Strategy podcast, where today we’re talking about the power of creating clarity around your specific definition of success with the amazing Adrian Johnston. Adrian is a presentation designer who specializes in helping her clients visualize their content and PowerPoint for the purpose of doing big things like landing new clients, educating existing internal or external clients, or even securing investment capital. So with 15 years of experience in marketing and operations for small and mid-sized businesses, she really understands the challenges of keeping an audience engaged during a meeting and the importance of structuring a meeting in a way that helps you reach your objectives. And so today, when we’re talking about success, this is something that she has seen not only in her own business, but in the businesses of her clients over the years. And I’m really excited for us to get to have this conversation because honestly, defining what success means to you is going to serve as that guiding light that keeps you focused and keeps you moving forward with purpose in all seasons, even when things get challenging in business. So I’m really excited for us to have this conversation. And with that being said, Adrian, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Adrienne:
Thanks, Bonnie. I’m super excited to be here.
Bonnie:
I’m super excited to have you. And if you’re up for it, I’d love if you could share a little bit more about who are and what you do and this incredible business of yours.
Adrienne:
Absolutely. So I am a presentation designer. I work exclusively in PowerPoint. Obviously, there are a lot of people using Camba for presentations. Now, Google Slides, keynote. I have found, um, the big corporate clients who are, you know, willing to pay for that type of work and really need to have that punch in wow factor to their designs tend to be big companies. Everybody’s using Microsoft, and so PowerPoint is their natural go-to tool. And so it’s really where I focus my efforts. I probably, people always ask, they’re like, you don’t get more keynotes. I, I get like one or two keynote requests a year. So it’s never really been worth me getting in and, and learning it backwards and forwards even though I’m on a Mac . Um, and I will say there, there are some pretty cool sleek things about Keynote, but, so my background is, uh, marketing and operations.
Adrienne:
I studied chemistry in college, which I swear sounds like the most random out of the woods thing, but it’s all gonna come back together, I promise. . Uh, I spent more time working on my lab reports and making them pretty than I ever cared about the results. And I should have known men, but I still didn’t . It took another 10 years. I worked for Starbucks doing regional training after college and then wanted to work for some small startups working in marketing and operations. And it’s one of those environments, you know, where you just wear tons of hats. You never have enough time, you never have enough resources, enough people, and so everybody just does everything. And so on the weekends I was teaching myself Photoshop, again, another sign that when my hobby was designed that I should have been living that life, but I just, you know, kind of kept going.
Adrienne:
But what’s really interesting about all of that is that when it all comes together, right, it really does point to this really, um, unique way of optimizing my business. How do I make it run in the best way possible? And how do I make it really fit the life that I want to have? And my big thing when I left corporate and said, okay, like I’m gonna start my own business, was just flexibility across the board. My daughter was, at the time she was six, so she’d started school, but we were starting to, you know, have those challenges. Oh, she’s sick and missing a day. And I just wanted to be able to be there without having to feel guilty or if she was sick, dragging her into the office because there was some meeting I couldn’t miss and things like that. And so it was, for me, it was all about flexibility.
Adrienne:
And as I got started, I was doing all the things. , I laugh. I was building body, you would kill me. I was building Shopify sites. I was a building every kind of website you could imagine. I was doing presentations, I was changing fabrics, watches on curtain samples for big retailers. It was, I was all over the board. And I realized after a few months I was like, I’m making less money working for myself than I was at my full-time job. And I’m working even more like how, how have I managed to, to build this the wrong way? And I realized it all, you know, comes down to me and I said, you gotta get like really serious about like what’s working and what’s not and how are you gonna optimize this thing? And that was really where I started the journey of saying like being really honest with myself about like what was success gonna look like And success was gonna mean yoga pants, and a messy fun.
Adrienne:
And it was gonna be making good money and working 20 to 30 hours a week and still feeling like I had time to go exercise and to cook dinner and do all of those things. And so I laid out my whole plan and I said, okay, like I gotta figure out what’s really working in this business. And the really weird thing that was working was presentations. And I was so familiar with PowerPoint cause I’d been using it at college for my lab reports. I was using it in the business world for staff meetings and everything under the sun. And so I was just super comfortable with it and I realized that there were just so few people bidding on those projects. Clients were coming to me, finding me, and I said, wow. Like I’ve, I’ve gotta capitalize on this. And so I niche down, I said, I’m just doing presentations on PowerPoint and I am going to get like really efficient at doing it.
Adrienne:
I’m gonna be the expert so I can command premium rates and I’m gonna set a really high rate and if you wanna work with me, that’s what it is. And there were a few months there that were a little touch and go a little scary from an income standpoint, but within two or three months, like I scaled past that. And uh, gosh, you know, I started out those first few months when I was doing everything. I was making like $5,000 a month and then, um, by the end of the year I was at $15,000 months. And it was just like mind blowing that like in that place right, where I’d said, this is what I want and this is what I’m gonna do to get there. That like, with the execution, even though it was scary and those first few steps, you know, cuz you are going out on faith a little bit that like, what I think is gonna work is gonna work.
Adrienne:
And I got there and it was just mind boggling. But I think the, the thing that sense always kind of creeps back up on me is it’s, you’re never done. You are never done. There’s gonna be a client that sneaks in and you’re like, oh, I don’t really enjoy working with this client. You know, they’re like an energy zap for me mm-hmm. . And so you have to like be really honest about like, it’s okay that this client isn’t the right fit for me. Um, and have that conversation. And it’s not always easy, but I think having that north star of what kind of business do you really want is gonna shape every decision that you make in your business and really enable you to be happy. Cuz it’s really easy to build a business that you hate . Mm-hmm , it’s far more difficult to build a business that you love, that inspires you, that motivates you, that come Monday morning you’re jazzed and excited to get up and, and start
Bonnie:
Work. Absolutely. And do you think that when you said it’s, it’s easier to start building a business that you end up hating, do you think that that’s because we get distracted by these metrics of success that other people have shared and put out there and so then we start buying into this belief that, oh, it’s what that person does and they’re super successful, so I need to do that too. Or I see that person over there, you know, having this as a metric that they’re pursuing. So I should, I should do that too. Do you think that we end up building these systems that no longer service because we get focused on the wrong things?
Adrienne:
A hundred percent. I mean, that’s not just what we see other people doing, but I mean, it starts in childhood, right? Our parents tell us what we should be doing and kind of guiding that and setting those values for us that we don’t even realize. Like I it lift my own devices. I probably never would’ve gravitated towards a lab science of all things, but my mother said, you should be a doctor. And so like that’s what I, how I started college, you know, thinking that like that was what I should do and that was the definition of success. And you know, growing up I felt like I saw doctors, lawyers, teachers, and people who cut hair and these were like the four things I thought I could be when I grew up . And like now, you know, and even after college you start to see like this whole wide world of opportunity and that you can really just kind of carve out your own little place in the world.
Adrienne:
And so, yeah, I, I think that so much of that is us questioning why do I think that this is important and is it to me or is it something someone else has said to your point or I see somewhere else or even, you know, you see like other designers that you really admire and that’s amazing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you really want that life. You can look up to them in that way. That doesn’t mean that you wanna do exactly what they do or that even that you value the same things that they do.
Bonnie:
Absolutely. I know for myself, there are lots of people that I, that I respect, that I love what they’re doing. I love, you know, kind of falling along with that journey. But the more that I’ve, you know, just really started cultivating this self-awareness and the longer that I’ve been in business, the more I’ve realized that it just does not work for me to do what other people are doing and to do it the way that they’re doing it, to look at it the way that they’re looking at it. And so we can look at what other people are doing and celebrate it and cheer them on, but that doesn’t mean that we have to start mirroring it. And I think that there’s a lot of freedom in that thought because it gives us all the space to be as unique and individual and as one of a kind as we truly are. And it means that instead of feeling limited by these very few select ways of running an online business or being a designer or being a successful surface provider, it means that there’s more space for all of us to pursue it and do it and show up in ways that bring us joy, which I personally think is very exciting.
Adrienne:
100%. And that is my single favorite thing about being a freelancer or solopreneur a small business owner, is it’s just me. And so I can be really selective, right? Like I haven’t built this monster of a machine that has payroll where I have to say, we gotta make payroll and so I have to take on this client or project. I can really be so super focused on what fuels me and building the business that I love.
Bonnie:
I love that something that you said a minute ago is, you know, kind of this, this way to challenge some of the beliefs or the thoughts or the views that might have been shared with us from an external source at some point in our lives. Well, when we are start to really look at what it means to define success as individuals, what are some things we can do? What are some steps maybe that we can take to start to figure out what that could look like? And as a part of that, really just looking at what we’ve been doing and what we’ve been believing and buying into and asking ourselves, wait, did that originate with me or did that come from some place in someone else?
Adrienne:
Yeah, I think I heard this trick once from a psychologist that I just thought was so cool and I still do it all the time, but he said, um, imagine looking into your crystal ball and this is supposed to trigger the creative side of your brain and kind of get you outta that analytical, you know, historical everything I ever thought and, and did this creative place. And he said, look into your magic crystal ball and imagine your life in 10 years and what does that look like? And it was really interesting because when I looked into that crystal ball, my, what I saw was a lifestyle. It wasn’t necessarily a particular job or anything like that, it was, but it was the working from home, it was being in control of my schedule and really having control over the kinds of clients that I worked with.
Adrienne:
And that was huge for me. And so I think that that’s a really cool creative exercise to do is just to kind of like look into your crystal ball and kind of imagine what that is without any kind of constraints. What could it be? Um, without the limitations again of what, what people have told us. But I think another good activity potentially to do is to just get a notebook, go to the park, go to a quiet place, really be by yourself and just start writing down what are the things that I want, right in my personal life, in my business, um, what are the things that fuel me? What are the things that, you know, really just exhaust me at the end of the day and how can I reshape my life around those things? But just starting to like brainstorm and just get them out on paper.
Adrienne:
I love this. I hate that is so powerful. And we don’t even realize sometimes, right? Like whenever I have those clients that this is an example. I’m very particular about clients. As much as I’m a talker, I’m actually an introvert. And so clients who love picking up the phone and calling me 20 times a day, not my ideal client, but I also struggle a little bit with boundaries, which is a limitation about myself that I’m aware of. And so clients who are natural boundary pushers really drain me, right? Cause I’m always having to come back and reinforce the boundary. No, you can’t call me at eight o’clock at night, , no, I’m not turning this around in three hours. Like you’ll wreck my whole week. Um, and so, you know, I’ve learned what those limitations are and sometimes, you know, clients sneak in that aren’t the right fit and I have to stop and say to myself, okay, like, oh, they snuck in, right?
Adrienne:
And that’s okay. Like, let’s get through this project and then let’s refer them to someone else who’s a better fit for them. And I laugh because in my presentation design network, we like, we have just people of different personality styles who, like, whenever there’s someone with boundary issues, like I know exactly who I’m gonna refer them to. It’s a male, uh, counterpart of mine and he just doesn’t even hear things the same way that I do, right? He’s just like, I dunno, I’m just not gonna answer the phone at eight o’clock at night. I’m like, not answer the phone . I can’t believe he just wouldn’t answer the phone. But like, that’s exactly how he approaches it. And so for him it’s not draining. And for those clients it’s a much better fit. Um, so yeah, I think that like any kind of brainstorming, just time that we can take for ourselves and question those things.
Adrienne:
And you know, I even say like when I look back on nicheing into presentation design, I really struggled to do that for a while because it was PowerPoint . Let’s all be honest. I mean, it’s not, it’s not the greatest tool ever . And so it, especially when you’re coming from, you know, the Adobe suite, but like I was comfortable with it and I said, you know, like it doesn’t really bother me in the way that it bothers a lot of other people. But I even had to get past the whole presentation. Designer isn’t a real designer, like, and I stuff, people still say that to me sometimes and I’m like, really? Okay. Like, and you have to get past that, right? I’m like, I’m living my best life , whatever you want.
Bonnie:
I love that. And it like, that’s wild to me because I know several presentation designers that is absolutely a viable like specialty to niche down into. And I just, wow. It’s just bonkers that like people are out there having the audacity to tell us like what we can and can’t do and like what’s a real career and what’s not . Exactly.
Bonnie:
Well, okay, so I love those exercises that you shared and knowing that, let’s say, you know, we go through the exercises, we start to identify and put down on paper what works for us, what doesn’t work for us, what we want, how we wanna feel, what we want life to look like, and we start taking action and working towards that. But, and there’s always a but there’s the noise of being in the online space. There’s the, the noise of the clients who don’t respect your boundaries, calling you at 8:00 PM there’s, you know, all of that nonsense that’s just happening around us every single day. That seems to pull us in a million different directions. How have you found a way to create more clarity that keeps anchoring you back in what success means to you? What has that looked like for you?
Adrienne:
Um, I will say boundaries are a challenge for me. And so I, you’ll tend to see me be someone who’s less rigid about maintaining them and somebody who’s more always kind of pulling back inside of them. And so, um, what I try to do though is really listen to my instincts. I have found, you know, we come back and talking about like the right fit of clients. I have found that I have this instinct when I talk to people, it’s little things they say, like if a client, in my experience, if a client says something like, how many revisions do we get? They’re asking that question because they want a million revisions. They know that’s who they are, . But you know, early on I would say, oh, you know, three revisions, but it’s not a problem if we need to go past that. But all that does, right?
Adrienne:
They hear, oh great, we can get as many revisions as we need . And so like just learning to listen and hear those instincts, like to hear the words and to put the feeling that you have, have with it and really kind of get in tune with that and say, something’s not right here in listening to that. Cuz there are so many times I feel like, and I hear so many other people say this too, like, I had the feeling and I just pushed through it. I just ignored it. I thought, oh, I was just being silly or like, you’re being overdramatic or whatever. Instead of really just understanding that like innately like our emotions are right there with us, right? And they know what’s good and what’s bad. And listening to that for the most part, I think is super powerful. And for me, because I, it’s harder for me to kind of do that proactively up front as opposed to like cleaning it up on the back end.
Adrienne:
I’ve learned that like when I listen right then to those emotions, that feeling in the pit of my stomach, like, am I excited about working with this client and on this project or deep down am I kind of like, eh, I’m dreading it, right? And if I’m dreading it, it’s not the right fit. And you know, I think, you know, a lot of people at different places in their business, especially early on, you know, we take more of the eh and we just kind of let it happen because we’re like, well, we need the money and we don’t know where the next client’s coming from. And I completely understand that I was there, I have done it. And I think part of it is just like even keeping a list, right? Of like, I have to do this thing, I have to take on this project or this client and they’re not ideal and I’m gonna make a list , and as I am, like my schedule’s full and there are people that I can refer out, they’re at the top of the list, you know? And I think that’s really empowering and you could do that with, right? If you’re nicheing you could do it with different services if it’s about what hours you work, um, you could do it with anything and just say like, I’m gonna keep track of the decisions I’m having to make now to put food on the table versus what I ideally wanna be working toward.
Bonnie:
That’s a really great suggestion. And I think that when we give ourselves the permission to make a decision, well, let me, let me actually phrase it this way. When we give ourselves the permission to forgive ourselves for a past decision that we made, that served us in that season, but is no longer aligned with the decisions we want to make in this current season, that’s really freeing. Because like you’re saying, when you’re just getting started and you’re trying to pay your bills, you might have to make some decisions that don’t fully align with how you define success in your life or in your business. And if you make those decisions and take on those projects or choose to work with those clients, that doesn’t make you a bad person. That doesn’t make you a failure as a business owner. That doesn’t mean that you’ve totally screwed up with your definition of success and you just start from scratch.
Bonnie:
It just means that you’re human and you made a decision in that season that served you and maybe the, the way, maybe the client, maybe the project wasn’t 100% aligned, but I know, know, I made those decisions. I know tons of us have made those decisions and giving ourselves the permission to take action in a way that does serve us. And you know, to be clear, putting food on the table, paying your bills 100% serves you like that, is hands down a good thing. , it frees you up to then later on have the, the spaciousness to have the openness in your, your calendar or to have the money in the bank to be more selective about the clients you’re taking on, or to be more selective about where your time and energy ends up going in your business. And I just wanna say that knowing how you’re defining success, knowing how you’re taking action on a day to day basis to pursue that is, is not only powerful, but also it helps to inform the decisions that you’re making.
Bonnie:
Like Adrian, you were saying that you’re aware that boundaries with clients is an area for growth for you, but you also said that you’re more intentional on the front end with who you take on. You’re more selective about your clients. And when I look at that, that’s actually a boundary, that’s a really powerful boundary that you’re implementing before you let that person into kind of your, your client roster, sort of that inner business circle, so to speak, so that you’re only letting people in who you’re getting a good feeling about who will respect your boundaries, who you won’t have to be, you know, enforcing all of these other boundaries with. And I think that’s a really smart way to be proactive about taking action that aligns with how success feels to you and also aligns with your capacity in this season. And I I think that’s really awesome.
Adrienne:
Yeah, I mean it really is and it, it all comes together, right? Like it’s all part of creating that, that definition of success. And like if something’s gonna make me uncomfortable, how do I get in front of it, right? And for me, that’s huge because I, I know I’m gonna struggle on the back end with the boundaries. Um, so yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you just said. You said it so much better than I did
Bonnie:
, I don’t know about that, but thanks.
Adrienne:
So articulate.
Bonnie:
Um, well, you know, I, I think that when we are looking at how we can show up during the day to day in a way that continues to honor how we have defined success, it looks different for everybody. And I like to think of it personally as, as a journey, as a process. It’s almost kind of like this decision making muscle that’s probably too many metaphors, but we’re just gonna go with it. But it’s like, it’s like this, you know, this, this decision making muscle that I’m having to, to train, I’m having to build up and strengthen. And the more that I use it, the more that it becomes kind, kind of the second nature. And so when you’re getting started, let’s say that you’re just getting started and really sitting down and being honest with yourself and defining success in your business on your own terms, whether you’re brand new in business or you’ve been in business for years, but you’re, you’re starting to see, you’re having the self-awareness to see what you’ve been pursuing has been defined by other people along the way. When you sit down, make that decision to define what success looks like to you, you know, it’s important to remember that this isn’t gonna be this magic overnight change, right? It’s gonna be something that takes time and Adrianne, didn’t you even say kind of earlier on in our conversation, this is something that keeps growing and keeps changing for you? Like how, what success feels like now, would you say it’s, it’s pretty in line with what success looked like when you decided to start your business and go all in on presentation design?
Adrienne:
Oh no, it’s, I mean, the bar’s much higher now than it was then. Um, in terms of finances, in terms of free time. So back then I knew I wanted to be at 20 to 30 hours a week, but I mean, I was realistically probably working 40 to 50. I was far more fluid with, you know, my nights and weekends than I am today. And I was making a fraction of what I make now . Um, and so I, I always laugh that sometimes I feel like I’ve become a little bit spoiled, um, in the fact that like I have, you know, over time really gotten a really great client base. And so they are my ideal clients and so I’m really particular about adding new ones. But even, you know, from a rates perspective, would I effectively end up making like, part of my decision making process is, you know, the value of my time.
Adrienne:
And so if a client wants 50,000 revisions, they’re not the right fit for me because that’s gonna mean I effectively make 50 cents an hour. And so that’s not gonna work out. But yeah, I mean that, you know, I thought at the time when I just started nicheing, I was like, I’m not making less than a hundred dollars an hour. I mean, there are times where with projects and everything, project rates, like I hit $1,200 an hour, you know, like crazy things where you’re just like, wow. Like, and I think it’s important too, and we talk about the success, like to stop and appreciate those little moments. Like I think sometimes we just fly by them, you know, we’re like, oh yeah, I mean $1,200 on an hour, like that’s a big deal, right? It’s something that five years ago you would’ve been like, what? And even the little milestones, right? If it’s the first project you get at $40 an hour, whatever it is, like stop and celebrate those wins and realize that you’re on that path, you’re getting there, right? And with, with that, I think you find that reinforced motivation about like what could be and what you can build, even if you are having to make us some trade offs in the short term,
Bonnie:
That is such a good reminder. And it’s, it’s very interesting to me that you, you say that and you encourage us to really celebrate those wins and to celebrate those moments that show us, no, this is happening. Like I’m actually starting to see the success that I’ve defined for myself. I actually had a conversation with my therapist a while back around how uncomfortable it can feel to stop and celebrate those things that you worked so hard for. Like I, it’s something that I’m soaring on too. It’s like my, my default is to be like, yay, we did this thing. It was amazing. Okay, what’s next? And then like, move on. Um, without really giving that celebration the space and the time that it deserves. And she shared with me that this is something, this is normal. A lot of people struggle with this and it’s because joy feels like a truly vulnerable emotion and a lot of us aren’t comfortable, well first of all, a lot of us aren’t that comfortable with our emotions and a lot of us are especially uncomfortable with feeling vulnerable.
Bonnie:
But in your business, if you’ve created that win, if you’ve manifested that growth for yourself, I wanna remind you that you are safe with yourself, you’re safe in your business, and you’re safe enough for that momentary level of kind of twinge of awkwardness or discomfort to let yourself feel the full joy of celebrating that win. Whether it was getting your first client who’s paying you $40 an hour, whether it’s, you know, working your first four day work week, whether it’s hiring a VA for the first time, whatever that is. I would love it if we made that the industry norm instead of like this kind of concept of constant hustle to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. I would love it if we gave ourselves collectively way more time and energy to just like, celebrate exactly what we’re experiencing because you’re so right Adrian.
Bonnie:
Like what we are accomplishing is what maybe five years ago you would’ve dreamed about or what, you know, the you of last year would have loved to experience and now, now we’re seeing it happen and that’s, that’s a big deal that’s worth noting. Absolutely. Well, thinking about how success looks to us as individuals, knowing just how powerful it is, knowing just how helpful it is and hearing how you have really leveraged what success looks like to you to keep you on track and to help you make decisions. When we’re thinking about how to really start to, to examine this on a recurring basis, knowing this is something that’s gonna keep growing for us, knowing this is something that might change. Do you have like a, a system or a method in place of how frequently do you check in with success and do you have any kind of like, process in place of, you know, oh, I, I revisit this annually or every quarter or every six months or anything like that?
Adrienne:
Um, so, you know, I really want to start doing like a quarterly check in, like business planning kind of CEO days. I’ve never been good about doing that on a regular basis, but I should just slap it on the calendar today. Mm-hmm. , I would say the real touch point for me is when I’m talking to my therapist, um, we talk roughly every two weeks and usually about work . Mm-hmm. . And it’s so amazing to be, cuz I’ll just be like, well yeah, I need to let go of this client or this thing, rub me the wrong way. And we spend, you know, time talking about why it feels that way. And I have found that, you know, over time and with that relationship and having those conversations, like I now go in prepared of like, today I have to do this thing . We’re just gonna sound it out right now anyway.
Adrienne:
But it’s, yeah, it’s really interesting to me that like, um, if you a biz bestie, anybody that you could talk to, a spouse, a friend, anybody, really just listen to the things that you’re even saying when you talk to them, right? The things you’re frustrated about, the things you wanna change and then figure out how do you go change those things. Cause I think sometimes, you know, we just take for granted in the day to day that we can impact the things around us. We can actually change things. I think, and I do, and I would say like I have a really high sense of accountability and I’m definitely like a doer, just get it done kind of person. And so even for me, there are times where I realize I have this blind spot, right? Like I don’t have to accept this, this does not, this doesn’t have to be the way that my life is.
Adrienne:
I can influence it. I can say I’m, you know, finishing this project and then I’m not working with this client again. Or I can say, go back to the client and say, hey, like this was the original scope of work and we’re now way outside of that. And so, you know, if we continue down this path, this is the new revised quote. Like you can impact all of those things. Um, and I think sometimes it’s just a matter of like actually getting that to the top of our brain. And so I do think a quarterly day to really just sit down and say again with your notepad, what are the things I love? What are the things that I am not loving and how do I fix them is super powerful
Bonnie:
And I love how simple that is. You know, like it’s, it’s not like this 20 point questionnaire that we need to work through for ourselves. It’s literally like over the stretch of time, over the last quarter, the, you know, last six months or however frequently it’s happening, you’re looking at okay, over this chunk of time what has worked and what has not and how have I, you know, continued to move forward towards how I’ve defined success for myself. And it’s like this powerful form of, of accountability with yourself to sit down and get clear about what is serving you and what is not. And like so much yes, so much yes to remembering that you have the power to take action and change things that are happening right now that are not serving you at the highest level. Like, hmm, I need to like write that down on a post-it and put it on my monitor. So I remind myself of that too. ,
Adrienne:
You know what I was just thinking as you were talking, I was thinking what would also be a cool idea was actually to use post-its and like on two sides of your wall. Like things that are going great, things that aren’t, and where you can actually move them back and forth, right? And realize that it’s always ebbing and flowing and you’re always gonna have to take that action to kind of continue to keep, keep the chaos back where you want it.
Bonnie:
Hmm. I love that. It’s like using the post that helps to symbolize how fluid this can be, how temporary stuff stuff can be. And you know, you can, like what maybe, okay, here’s, here’s a wild thought when the things that used to be amazing and they were like in the wins column or in the this is working for me column, move over into the, this is no longer working for me column because you’re growing and your business is growing and the things that once served really once served, you are not necessarily serving you in that same way anymore. Like, let’s let’s get honest about that because it is, I think that’s a hugely normal part of growing a business, but it feels backwards and weird and uncomfortable because part of your brain is like, but I wanted that at one point and I liked it for so long, but now maybe it’s not serving you in the way that it really could.
Adrienne:
That’s a really good point. Yeah. I think sometimes we forget about that, right? Cuz we look, got me here, won’t get me there, you know, and at some point, like you have to give up the, if you want like a certain lifestyle as an example, then you have to give up the clients who have no boundaries and wanna call you at 10:00 PM
Bonnie:
Yeah, absolutely. And maybe like at one point in your business, reaching a certain revenue goal meant more to you than how many hours you were logging in your business each week. And so you took on more clients at a lower rate or you know, something like that and you were working more and now maybe you’re in a season where you’re like, I really value my time in a different way than I used to. And so I want to either increase my prices so that I can take on fewer clients and earn the same amount of money, or hopefully more and free up more time. Or, you know, make a decision about what that, that kind of ratio of of profit generated to time spent working in your business, what that looks like. So it aligns with how you wanna show up. You know, I think that for a lot of, a lot of folks, if you have, if you’re growing a family, if you are wanting to spend more time with, with your partner, if you’re wanting to take, you know, like volunteer, do philanthropic work, uh, you know, take classes for yourself, start a new hobby, whatever it looks like.
Bonnie:
If you’re wanting to spend your time in places that are outside of your business, uh, it’s important to, you know, keep keep checking in with yourself and look at that and say, Hey, is this really where I want my time to be going? And Adrian, you were actually saying when you sat down first when you were starting your business, you were like, all right, success looks like working 20 to 30 hours a week making, you know, X number of dollars a month because I want to be present with my daughter in this season of her life. And I think that’s so powerful, you know, to give ourselves the permission to be honest about that and to claim that, and then to take action on it. So I really love that that was something that you shared.
Adrienne:
Absolutely. And I’ll say, you know, that changes, right? Like, she was six at the time, she’s 10 going on 11 now. Um, and you know, she doesn’t, she’s already starting to get to that like pre middle school. I’m too cool to hang out with you all the time, mom. And so I find myself working a little later in the afternoons because I can, but then when she comes in and she wants, you know, you’re always gonna take their time and I’ll give it to you like when she comes in, like, yeah, I can stop working on this, right? Like it was a choice. Um, so yeah, it’s so huge, so huge to have that flexibility to be able to make your life what you want. And so I love being self-employed.
Bonnie:
Mm. And I love that it’s, it’s, you know, we, when we talk about success and the online business space, I think that it’s easy for us to boil it down to how much money your business generates each month, each quarter, each year. But like, really, when we think about what success feels like and looks like the money is, is really helpful. Let’s , let’s be honest, the money is is still important, but how you feel in your business and how that looks to you might be different. And so I think that what’s so cool about hearing how you’ve defined success is you looked at it through that lens of freedom and you looked at it through that lens of time. And that’s such a precious resource and such an incredible way to feel, you know, that concept of freedom. And so when folks are sitting down and starting to figure out what success looks like to them, it’s okay if there’s not a financial amount that comes to mind when you’re defining success.
Bonnie:
If it’s just the emotions, the feelings, your relationship with time, and how your time is being spent and your business, that’s okay. You know, I, I want for folks to feel the freedom to know that however success resonates for you is exactly okay, whether it’s time something intangible like freedom, it’s an emotion, or it’s a ridiculously awesome amount of money in your bank account. Like whatever it is, I love that for you and I want everyone to have what success means to them. But yeah, I wanted to mention that in case, in case someone’s feeling like, you know, again, through the lens of looking at how we’re defining success and thinking, mm, I love that for them. But I’m not sure if that really resonates for me. It’s, it’s okay because again, this is something that you’re creating for yourself and it’s going to be really beautiful to honor that for yourself and to give yourself the permission to, to accept that and, and let that come in.
Adrienne:
You’re spot on. It’s so different for everybody, and it should be, you shouldn’t be living up to anyone else’s version of success. And I think I, and I just think that we do, right? Because people talk about how much money they make and how many hours they work or whatever, but for you, it could be that, you know, you have enough energy to go work out after you’re done for the day, or that you have the time to go do it before it could be anything. Um, and it, it shouldn’t in any way be boxed in by what other people’s definition of success is.
Bonnie:
100%. You know, here on the podcast I’ve shared about how many hours I work a week, I’ve shared about, you know, the revenue that my business generates. I have an entire program for designers where I show you how to generate 10 k plus months using brand strategy as your superpower. None of that is meant to presume to define success for you. All of that is, and I even say this like when I talk about it on the podcast, I make it very clear that I’m sharing my personal lived experience in case parts of it are useful for you and help you. This is not meant to serve as a standard that you need to achieve in order to be successful. This is not meant to be some like imaginary line in the sand that you need to not only reach, but then like hop over and, you know, keep surpassing in order to quote unquote make it. This is purely an example of what growth can look like. And I think that at least from my perspective, I choose to share and I find it helpful when people share because it helps to illustrate more of what’s possible out there. But I never want for folks to, you know, believe that someone else’s milestones or goals or the are the milestones that, that you need to be pursuing. So Adrian, I think you just 100% nailed it. I was said so thoughtfully.
Adrienne:
That was all you.
Bonnie:
No, what you said . Oh my goodness. When you were saying how, you know, how this is, this is something where we, we focus on remembering what our unique definition is in pursuing that. I just, yeah. Given, given like lots of thumbs up over here because that is exactly, exactly in alignment with my thoughts on the subject too, . So with all of that being said, when you’re thinking about a final piece of encouragement, a final piece of advice that you might wanna share to those who are tuning in today about defining success on their own terms, are there any things that come to mind? Any thoughts that you would like to share there?
Adrienne:
I guess I would just say don’t be afraid to dream big and take action on those dreams. I think that, you know, I really struggled even with going freelance because I just didn’t think I could make as much money as I was making in corporate. And now I’m making multiples of that with way more free time. And again, the flexibility and all of that. And money isn’t everything, but it’s important to an extent mm-hmm. . Um, and so it was an important factor for me, and I just can’t imagine if I hadn’t just said, I can figure this out, , I can do it if I had, you know, you look at the statistics on what freelance designers make, I mean, and it’s nowhere near what they deserve to be making. Um, and so, you know, I think if I had believed that story, um, and that data that I saw and not just kind of taking the leap of faith and know, trusted in myself that I could figure it out and build a business that I wanted.
Adrienne:
Um, and so I don’t recommend taking wild leaps of faith. Like I had to quit my job, we had my husband’s income, so that was kind of a balance there. So I generally say don’t do that without a plan. Like I wouldn’t do that again, knowing what I know now, I would’ve side hustled a bit, but I, you know, I totally think just take action, right? Like if you’ve been thinking about it, like get your website up, right? Reach out to some people, you know, try it on for size. And I even, you know, I think about like the presentation design thing, and it seemed so, I can’t even think of the word, not like a bad idea, but just such an abstract, not real super weird niche, uh, to, to niche into at the time, but I just went for it, right? And what was the worst that was gonna happen? I was gonna realize it didn’t work and that I could pivot and figure something else out. But obviously I’m now so glad that I did it because it’s been hugely valuable, um, for my whole life, you know?
Bonnie:
Wow. I just love that you share that because that is such a powerful example of, of what it looks like to take that leap to go all in on an idea that maybe the time felt far fetched, but like, look at where it’s taken you and look at how powerful and transformative it’s been for you. And I just get so excited when I hear this and when I see people out there who have decided to feel that fear, but have decided to take that action anyway because it helps show us, you know, those of us out here who are in the, those, you know, stages of still doing and growing and being, seeing that models can be really freeing and can help normalize the fact that as we all take action towards pursuing success on our own terms, there might be some fear, some doubt, some hesitation, but remembering that you’re a smart human and you’ve gotten yourself this far and you can get yourself as far as you wanna go. And Adrian, that’s like exactly what you did. So thanks for sharing that with us.
Adrienne:
Oh, it’s my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Bonnie:
Absolutely. Well, I know that for folks who’ve been tuning in today, they are wanting to learn more about you and seeing more of this incredible work that you do and connect with you online. So where can they go to do just that?
Adrienne:
Uh, yeah, they can go to designing and thriving.com and I’ve got some resources there for people who are aspiring presentation designers and then just designers in general.
Bonnie:
Amazing. Well, friends who are tuning in today. As always, I will have all of those links in the show notes for today’s episode. So you can just go to brand strategy podcast.com and click on the latest episode link in case you want all of those resources in one place. But highly encourage you to go and check out Adrian’s work to explore some of those free resources that she’s created and to follow along with the incredible work that she’s doing on her corner of the internet. Adriannene, thank you again for joining me. This was a really, really fantastic conversation and I’m just very grateful to be able to have shared this with you. So thank you so much.
Adrienne:
Thank you, Bonnie. I had a great time. It was great to finally connect
Bonnie:
. I’m so glad to hear that. I’m honored. Thank you all so much for tuning into today’s episode of the Brand Strategy Podcast. Um, as always, I’m grateful that you’re a part of this community and we will look forward to chatting with you again soon in a future episode. And until then, I’ll be cheering y’all on from Waco. Thank, thank you so much for joining me today. Friends, before you go, I would be so grateful to receive your feedback on the Brand strategy podcast. If you enjoyed this episode or the podcast in general has helped you grow your brand, I’d really appreciate it if you left us a review in iTunes. Your positive reviews enable the brand strategy podcast to continue to grow and reach like-minded creatives just like you. Thank you for all your support and encouragement as together we pursue building Brayons with purpose and intention. Until next time, I’m cheering you on from Waco.
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