In our digital age, having a beautiful, mobile-friendly website is essential. It's how your dream customers will find you and where they'll go to learn more about what you do. But once you have their attention, how do you get them to stick around? When people's attention spans are shorter than ever, how do you get people to actually to read your website content?

When I shared my red flags and green lights for evaluating client inquiries a couple weeks ago, I was absolutely stunned by the response. Designers and business owners from all over came out of the woodwork to share that they knew they'd been working with the wrong clients for too long. They told me my words were exactly what they needed to hear.

So if deep down all these entrepreneurs know their clients aren't a good fit, why are they taking them on?

When it comes to running my brand consulting business, I consider who I work with to be just as important as the work I do. Not every inquiry that lands in my inbox will be a good fit and not every client will be the right one for me. Unfortunately, many of us only realize this once it's too late and we're knee deep in our very own client horror story.

No one likes a sleazy salesman (or lady). No one wants to hear the same tired pitch over and over, but the reality remains that you need to make sales in order to stay in business. I've written in the past about selling the authentic way, which is essentially selling what you do... without “selling” it.

But how does that even work?

Well admittedly in the past, I've found it pretty easy to share what I do without being “salesy” thanks to an ever-changing roster of incredible clients where no two brands look alike. However, with the recent launch of my premier course, Illustrator Essentials, I found myself needing to expand my repertoire and get a big more creative when it came to sharing my offerings.

So how can you promote your product without obnoxiously repeating yourself or launching to crickets? Well! Today I'm excited to share my formula for just that—making sales without “selling.” So without further ado, let's dig in!

In my previous post, I shared the first 10 lessons I've learned from building and launching my first online course, Illustrator Essentials. I knew a post with all 20 would be way too much to digest all at once, so today I'm excited to share the next ten lessons with you!

For the last few months, I've been working pretty much nonstop on my premier online course, Illustrator Essentials. This course has been over a year in the making, and all that “making” has been filled with more ups and downs than I can count.

Throughout this massive rollercoaster of an endeavor, each victory and hiccup has seemed life-altering. But as the close of my first launch of the course grows near, I'm finding it much easier to look back and recognize the lessons that matter most from this journey.

When it seems like there's constantly more things we need to make space for in our days, it pays to save time wherever you can. This is why I love keyboard shortcuts. I can easily navigate various digital actions without constantly jumping back and forth between my keyboard and mouse, and hardly ever touching that top menu.

Today I'm excited to share my must-have shortcuts with your digital life. A lot of these you might already be familiar with, but you may also find some gems here as well. That said, cheers to taking the easy way!

For the last couple weeks, I've been heads down grinding away at my Illustrator Essentials course (launching July 10th). As you know, I'm a huge advocate of balance in life and business, but even I can acknowledge that there's a time to hustle when things just need to get done. That said, I've found one thing is my saving grace when the deadlines and creative block come calling.

As creative folks and small business owners, we love what we do. As a result, it's hard to separate our work from our life, making it so easy to think that each to-do is make-or-break for our brands and any hiccups are the end of the world. When we're frustrated or blocked creatively, we spend hours banging our heads against a wall and trying to muscle through. But there's a better way.

I'm a firm believer in taking care of ourselves and avoiding the hustle-for-hustle's-sake culture that seems to be so prevalent in the business world these days. Hustle isn't a badge of honor, it's a means to an end.