We start our days and our projects with the best of intentions. As creatives, it's easy to let our imaginations run away with us—visualizing our ideal scenario and just how amazing it could all be. But not every experience will be stars across the board.

I've experienced this quite a few times with projects (even recently), and thought I'd shed some light on what I've learned from these bumps in the road.

This past week I had the enormous privilege to return to Columbus, GA for my second Creative South! While the weather and Delta airlines gave us a bit of a hard time getting there (in varying degrees), it was well worth the haul to reunite with my creative family and connect with lots of new friends too!

Came as Friends

Beyond the awesome workshops and incredibly inspiring speakers, there's something so magical about connecting in person with other creative souls that really understand the struggles and victories we deal with on a daily basis, and to finally meet those friends from the internet.

Speaking of speakers, the line-up was killer and so full of insight, passion, and vulnerability. For those of you who didn't attend (and even those who did and just want to take a trip down memory lane), I thought I'd share my favorite quotes and takeaways from the talks this year.

As an introvert, networking events have always been the stuff of nightmares for me. I'm terrible with remembering the names of people I just met because I'm way too worried about having something to talk about next and—wait—is there something in my teeth? I've always hated the small talk and business jargon, and to be perfectly honest approaching random people just stresses me out.

Pushy sales tactics and a heap of business cards from momentary encounters put a bad taste in my mouth, not to mention the multitude of meaningless LinkedIn requests afterward that no one ever follows up. I never thought I'd be good at networking, and according to my understanding of what “networking” was, I didn't want to be.

I'm so pleased to finally share my branding and website work for Fertilust! Between its encouraging and playful feel to all of the symbolic depth behind this beautiful brand, it's one I can't wait to pull back the curtain on. So without further ado, I give you the Fertilust brand!

When folks sign up for my branding newsletter, the first thing I ask is “what are you struggling with in your brand?” When I first created my newsletter, I expected the answers to be all over the place and while there's been a decent variety, over time I've noticed a trend.

Consistency is tough for all of us

It seems like so many of you struggle with being consistent in your brands. I totally get it. Consistency is a complex, relentless beast.

You've got all these ideas, but you don't know where to start. There are so many responsibilities, distractions, and “shoulds” pulling at you every second of every day. Sometimes you just can't find your groove. And on top of all that, you can't help nitpicking at your own brand as it starts to feel lackluster and stale.

So how in the heck are you supposed to be consistent with the weight of all this dragging you down? I wish I could tell you there's some magic formula, and while I can provide a guide I can't promise you it will be easy. But sometimes a shot of honesty and insight is just what you need to get your head right and find your focus.

So with that in mind, these are the steps that help me be more consistent. I hope they can do the same for you!

I'm so excited to share what I've been working so hard on over the last couple months... my first eCourse! That's right—in the next couple months I'll be releasing my very own course teaching creative folks how to harness Adobe Illustrator for their brand needs. It's going to be called... wait for it... Illustrator Essentials!

I'm so excited to finally share the logo and brand identity I created for Sattwa Chai, an heirloom microbrewed chai brand! Since my work with my friends at Function Coffee Labs, I'd been absolutely itching to get back into the hospitality space and work on some more food and beverage branding. This new branding partnership blossomed just in time!

Over the last year I've received quite a few inquiries from people looking for “just a logo.” It seems like a reasonable enough request, right? To some designers it absolutely is, and while I used to work this way at my former jobs, I now turn these projects away. I may be missing out on some business, but it's in service of a greater goal and vision for how I want to work with my clients.

So why don't I offer a logo-only package?

Today I'm honored and totally thrilled to have my post “Bulletproof Business Practices for Introverts & People Pleasers” featured on the Rising Tide Society's blog! They're such an empowering group of creatives, who share my value of community over competition. I'm so thankful that my content resonates with them (and this isn't the first time either!), but most of all, I hope that this helps spread my posts so they can help more people.

Many of the folks that sign up for my newsletter say that they're struggling with building a strong, consistent brand and extending their reach. Aligning yourself with another brand that supports the same values is a great way to help grow your following in an intentional way and find more of your people.