I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends! Today I wanted to share why I keep it real with my clients. I mainly do branding for women wedding businesses and it would be a disservice to them if I held back my honest thoughts. If you don’t already know my background is actually in business. I have degrees in Marketing and Management and a Master’s in Video Based Production. Things like niches and ideal clients were drilled into me in business school and I can’t help but use that knowledge for my own clients since most of them do not have that business background.

I feel a lot of designers just ask their clients who their ideal client is, what colors they want to use, etc., but I do something completely different. I help them figure out those things and then we discuss visuals. 

This is often an eye-opening experience for my clients. Most of them have really never looked at their competitors, written a description of their ideal client, or think about a focus. These things are so key in establishing a good business and brand. I do actually ask my clients who they think their ideal client is, what colors they want, etc. but I do that before we have a coaching session where I learn more about them and can make an objective opinion myself based on that conversation and their questionnaire they fill out whether or not their ideal client and colors will actually work.

Sometimes during our session I’ll just straight up say “No. This won’t work. And here’s why.”

I’m totally okay with doing this! I’m not being mean. I’m being honest and objective in trying to get them to attract their ideal clients. If I didn’t share these opinions I wouldn’t be doing my job. A lot of my clients just think they can build a visual brand that is something they consider pretty, but is that enough to attract their ideal clients? Sometimes, but most likely not if the visuals aren’t thought with the end goal of attracting those clients.