Have you worked with a designer before? Did you use a mood board?⁣

⁣Mood boards are boards which people fill with different kinds of visuals. These visuals range from photos to various textures, fonts and colors. Mood boarding helps visualize ideas and concepts.⁣

⁣When a product or business is at the stage of an abstract idea, it is sometimes difficult for a designer and a client to communicate their ideas and emotions together effectively. When a designer uses art jargon a lot of clients will be completely clueless as to what they mean. But show them a mood board that incorporates those concepts and they immediately understand and then can express what they love or hate about the ideas.⁣

Mood boards effectively share ideas with others because visual material always works better than spoken word in narrowing and honing in on visual and abstract concepts.

I personally love pinterest for this express reason. I have had more than one business owner audibly chuckle at me when I mentioned pinterest. But, obviously, they haven’t yet figured out how powerful a visual search engine is.⁣

⁣Honestly mood boarding saves both myself and my clients time and energy. I have tried to work with clients without starting off with a mood board and we miss the mark. It is something I now always include and consistently refine throughout the design process.

This one is all about engagement. I’m not sure if it’s now common knowledge, but only 4-6% of your followers see your posts.

I have found the best way to up this engagement is to have interaction in Instagram before you post and right after you post. I heard one Social media guru put it in these terms

You need to warm up insta before you post then immediately comment back and like comments made on your post.

This will up your posts engagement and more of your followers as well as hashtag followers will see and interact with you.

It’s been awhile since I have had the opportunity to post, but I’ve learned so much lately that I want to SHARE.

Instagram has been my latest endeavor. When I first started, 2 years ago, I wasn’t convinced that more followers actually resulted in more clients or customers. I have since been completely converted. I have watched small businesses become hugely successful using social media. Like hurry we need to lease a bigger space and hire more employees right now bigger!

Hopefully you are reading this because you too are already convinced and want to learn how to boost your following.

The #1 Tip I have recently learned is the power of the hashtag. Find the hashtags that your followers are viewing, follow those hashtags, make genuine comments on the top posts of those hashtags daily. Be sure your posts are applicable to those hashtags and I assure you, your followers will find you.

Go try it! Let me know your results in the comments 👇🏻

I will share Tip #2 tomorrow, so check back in with me here!

The last year has been the hardest year of my life. Harder than the year I lost my Dad, harder than having three babies under three even harder than the year I cut off my index finger. Why, you wonder has it been so tough, because the purpose in 80% of the areas of my life changed and or went away all together. I have three teens, yep those babies grew up and are finishing up their journey to independence. Most importantly they have started caring what their peers think more than what their dear mom thinks or does. I graduated college, after 22 years of off and on pursuit of my degree. I have a medical condition that no longer allows me to run like I used to. Lastly, my role in my church went away. My point is that purpose means so much more than I ever realized, we all need to feel that the effort we give in this life has value and that we exist for more than just making carbon dioxide. My hubby and many of his teammates are leaving a large company after 13 years of employment. We are giving up a large amount of potential stock money (large enough that my heart skips a beat when thinking about it) and other benefits, one important to me is the 100% insurance coverage, that we have enjoyed for 13 years. Why is he leaving? My wifely, humble and insider opinion is PURPOSE. His company has let him and his teammates sit around for months without any of it. They were still paid, most were not suspecting layoff, but they had nothing of importance to do so they sought and found purpose elsewhere.

It’s taken time, tears and lots of soul searching, but I have begun to understand what my purpose in this next phase of my life is NOT. The majority of my purpose is not my church calling (hard to accept), not my next running PR (hard to let go), not even fully my motherhood (of course this will always be a priority for me.)  I believe my extra purpose is in being and becoming the best dang designer I can. Supporters along this journey will be considered friend, those who make me feel small will be ignored and those who constructively critique and teach me will be my besties!

Interesting article by a top San Diego Branding Agency, Mth Degree, about branding and company purpose. I particularly liked how Steven addresses employees and purpose.

Three Levels of Brand Purpose