Get ready to explore the vibrant world of design entrepreneurship with Kristy Campbell, the innovative force behind Pink Pony Creative. In this episode of The Profitable Graphic Designer Podcast, we uncover Kristy’s journey from a solo designer to leading a successful design agency.

Discover the inspiration behind Kristy’s 100-day design challenge and the strategies she employed to scale her business. From her unique approach to social media marketing to attracting dream clients, Kristy shares invaluable insights and advice for fellow designers and small business owners aiming to thrive in the industry. Join me as we unravel the secrets to building a thriving design agency, straight from the dynamic mind of Kristy Campbell.

 

Listen to the episode here:

Spotify  –  Apple Podcasts  –  Amazon Music

 

You will learn:

• The story behind Kristy’s 100-day design challenge on Instagram and its impact on her journey.
• Strategies for transitioning from a solo designer to leading a successful design agency.
• Insights into effective social media marketing and attracting dream design clients.
• Kristy’s approach to managing social media accounts and identifying the most effective platforms.
• Key lessons and advice for aspiring designers and small business owners seeking growth and success in the industry.

Grab a cup of coffee and be ready to take notes!

About Kristy:

Kristy Campbell, founder of Pink Pony Creative and Adobe MAX speaker, is a New Zealand-based Brand Identity and Graphic Designer with over ten years’ of experience in the industry. She expresses herself in daring, vibrant and exciting ways, pushing the boundaries of branding through the combination of loud color, quirky illustrations, and stylized logos. Kristy now undertakes projects for clients worldwide and embraces an ‘anything but boring’ aesthetic in design and business. And with a business name like “Pink Pony”, you know she creates a little differently.

www.pinkponycreative.com

https://www.instagram.com/kristy.thepinkpony/

https://www.tiktok.com/@pinkponycreative

The Social Ponies Podcast

 

Resources:

$12k Client Attraction Masterclass: https://aventiveacademy.com/attract-clients-workshop/

The Wealthy Client Blueprint: ⁠https://aventiveacademy.com/wealthy-client/

12-Week Business Program for Designers: https://aventiveacademy.com/profit

The Creative CEO Accelerator: https://aventiveacademy.com/accelerator

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TRANSCRIPT:

0:00
Social media is so powerful, it’s, you know, not only can you get new clients, which is obviously what we set out to do, but you can also build different revenue streams through social media, which I would have not understood four years ago. You know, through building an audience, and you don’t have to have a big audience to do this.

0:19
You can build your passive income streams. You can start to sell your services, your processes, or maybe do little online courses or tutorials, you know, subscription-based services, whatever it might be, you can have and build a passive income opportunity.

0:35
And play. Yeah, yeah, Team play, it’s all of that, which is so amazing when you get that set up and running and you’re getting money from doing nothing and then as well, you’ve got the whole other end of that, which is just it opens up other opportunities for you.

0:50
Like for me, speaking gigs that I never thought I would get the opportunity to do. And without social media, I would have never got those. But it’s a challenging game and it’s something that we all struggle with. It comes and, you know, ups and downs, and it’s a real challenge to not feel affected if your social media isn’t doing well or, you know, you’re finding your engagement slow.

1:14
But I think the best thing you can just do is keep going, keep creating. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed by social media, there’s a little quote and it’s: stop scrolling, just create. And I think that’s really important. I actually try my best not to scroll too much these days because I honestly do get really overwhelmed by what everyone else is doing.

1:34
Which is silly because, in essence, I’ve got everything that I could have ever wanted in a business and here I am being sad that I didn’t get 100,000 views on a video. Like, that’s ridiculous.

2:02
Welcome to the Profitable Graphic Designer podcast, brought to you by Aventive Academy. I’m your host, Kady Sandel. I’m a brand strategist, designer, creative director, and the CEO of a successful 6-figure design agency based in Austin, TX, serving clients worldwide.

2:20
After mastering the art of building a profitable and sustainable design business, I decided to help you achieve the same success. I teach brand, graphic, and web design business owners how to attract more clients, increase their pricing, and develop design businesses that provide the financial freedom and time flexibility you’ve always dreamt of.

2:40
We offer online programs, courses, and templates that you can use along with our Coaching Accelerator and Mastermind high-touch experiences for creatives. You can learn more about starting and growing your design business at aventiveacademy.com, but for now, grab a cup of coffee and join me in today’s podcast episode.

3:04
Hello and welcome to the Profitable Graphic Designer Podcast. In this episode, we have the pleasure of sitting down with the founder of Pink Pony Creative, Kristy Campbell. Kristy is a brand identity and graphic designer based in New Zealand.

3:20
Kristy, thank you so much for joining us today. Could you please introduce yourself to our listeners and share a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Thank you so much, Kady. Of course. So yeah. I’m Kristy Campbell. I’m a branding and graphic design agency owner.

3:36
I own Pink Pony Creative. I’ve owned Pink Pony Creative for four years now. We have a team of six people, which is just crazy. I’m like, that is, well, six, including me, just wild. And we basically help brands build their different visual identities that want to push boundaries and really capture the intention of their customers.

3:56
We work with brands all over the world and brands who do everything from like bakery, dog food, restaurants, bars, and we work with podcasters, hair salons, honestly such a wide range of services and industries that we work with.

4:11
But I’m very proud of my little business. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’ve done some cool things in my career now that I would have never expected to because of things like social media and like speaking at Adobe Max and having these other epic opportunities. So yeah, that’s in summary a bit about me.

4:29
Yeah, I love that. So I’ll tell you now something crazy. I literally scrolled all the way to July 1st, 2019 on your Instagram. Yes, that was your hundred-day design challenge because I’ve heard you talking about it.

4:46
How and why did you start the challenge? Did you see someone else doing it? If you could just tell us all about it, like why?

Yeah. So firstly, I love that you’ve scrolled that far down. I feel like my design style has certainly evolved since then and completely changed. But this was, yeah, back in 2019.

5:03
I had worked in the industry for seven years. After university, I’d had three different jobs for different employers and the job that I was at was working for a construction-based company, I guess, and I was there for two years designing in the same colors, the same fonts.

5:21
Honestly, I probably knew like 5 fonts in my head that that was my font collection. And anyway, so I was getting very bored and just creatively unchallenged. And so I thought, what better way to spark up some creativity than to set myself this 100-day design challenge where I would just create a piece of work every day for 100 days and I would use Instagram to keep myself accountable and create like a little portfolio of the work.

5:36
And I started that and it started to go well and I was enjoying it. Don’t get me wrong, it was quite hard work at day fifty. I was definitely like, I’m over this, I’m ready for it to end. And I was only halfway. But then I slowly started getting inquiries. They just started coming in and, you know, someone was like, hey, I love your work, can you make me a logo?

6:09
And I was like, oh, OK, let’s give this a go. And then, yeah, I just started actually, you know, charging people for the work. And eventually it became more and more and the inquiries started coming in more. And I just then made the decision, well, this could actually be a substantial business.

6:25
This could turn into something. And that’s when I decided to register the company name. In 2020, right before COVID, it was like bang on a week before we all went into lockdown. And then from there I actually approached my employer at the time and said hey, look, I’m not sure how you guys are going to feel about this, but I would love to start my own business and work on it.

6:48
How would you feel about me dropping to four days a week? And I work on my business one day of the week and they were really open to it. They were honestly incredible. They were so supportive. They were like, you know what, Kristy? You’ve done a lot for us and you’ve done almost all you can do. We’re happy for you to do this and make this slow transition out to being a full-time running business.

7:09
So I was very lucky with them at the time. They were so incredible to me and I thank them so much because they really supported me in that journey because I know how hard and difficult it is. Well, actually I don’t know because I didn’t go through it. You know, I could only imagine how hard and difficult it would be to all of a sudden quit your job and then have to work full-time in your own business.

7:32
That’s a lot of hours and a lot of work that you have to bring in, not knowing much at all about business. So I was very lucky with the transition, so I went on a right tangent then.

No, I loved that and I love. So first of all I wanted to mention construction company because I was working. I was already a freelancer, but I literally remember when I got to my third client, not third from the start, but third construction company client. I said there’s no way I’m going to work with construction companies anymore. It’s just so not creative. I think that that actually helped me find my niche and to figure out like how can I go into like packaging or website.

8:13
There’s something just not construction. Recently. Construction. Yeah, well, I mean, I’ve tried to round up what it was, what the business was, but do you know flat pack furniture? No. It’s like from IKEA where you put together a flat pack, but basically the business was people would go out and assemble flat pack furniture.

8:38
So I was like the brand and marketer for that business, but it was definitely, it was a great company to work for. You know, don’t get me wrong, they treated me so well, but it was just not creative enough for me. And back then, if I look at where I am now, I would have never have believed you that I would get this far and have the clients that I do and get to create the work that we do.

9:01
So I’m very proud. Yeah, I love that. And what kind of clients do you get now? Who do you work with the most?

Yes, I mean, it’s probably hard to say, but I would say if I was to pinpoint, it would be small to medium businesses, mostly female-owned, more feminine brands. But I don’t like putting myself into that box because we do work with males and we do work with brands who are more masculine.

9:21
But I don’t like putting myself into that box because we do work with males and we do work with brands who are more masculine. I just think most of our workers within that. But we work with businesses who really want to be a little bit creative, be daring and be different and do something quite unique in the industry that maybe you typically wouldn’t see.

9:43
And that is the type of clients we like to work with. So our range is pretty massive. Like I said, like bakeries, bars, restaurants, we love pet food, dog food. We’re working with, you know, someone who sells Western inspired clothing at the moment, which is so on brand for us.

10:00
We work with podcasters and we’ve done quite a few podcast brands. Well, visual identities before. Yeah, whole range of stuff. But honestly, I love it and I think my team, I can confidently say they love what they do as well and they feel really lucky to get to work on the clients they do every day, so.

10:21
Yeah, I love that. OK. So basically, you slowly transitioned from your full-time job to kind of part-time, not really part-time. And then you started freelancing, started getting clients. Can you just tell us how did that scale to having your own agency?

Because many designers dream of scaling their business like you have. So if you can just share with us the journey of how you transitioned then from being a solo designer to running a small design agency. Like what inspired or motivated you to make that transition?

10:53
Yeah, so when I started the business, it was just me, freelancer and I had no intention of. I didn’t dream to have a team. It was not even something that came to my mind. To be honest. I just wanted to be a freelancer who worked full time. That was my goal.

11:09
And then I slowly started to build my network. Clients started to roll in and I got to a point where I was so busy and I just felt like this workload, I wasn’t doing the best job at it because I was so stretched. And I thought why not just give it a go, contracting out some work.

11:29
And so I made the decision to put a little ad out, I think on Instagram. I did it on Instagram at the time. And I said, you know, I’m looking for a contractor to do say 5 hours of work a week. So it was really casual. I just wanted to trial it, see if firstly I enjoyed it, see if I had enough work for this type of relationship.

11:49
And then it got to the point where the five hours that this girl did started to grow to 10 hours and then a little bit more. And I said to my husband, I think I can hire someone full time. I have a gut feeling that this could work. So yeah, then I decided to bite the bullet and I hired my first employee.

12:09
But I did it on the basis that I thought I would have to go out and advertise a job that was 40 hours a week full time employee. But my dad said, you know, there’s no, although there are roles in business, it’s way more flexible than you think it is.

12:25
And so he said, let’s put out an ad saying what about a contracting role that’s 30 hours a week with the hope it’s going to turn into a full-time employee role. And then at least the, you know, person that we hire knows that that’s going to come.

12:41
They know it’s only going to be 30 hours to start with, but it’s the hope to build it up to 40 hours. And then I found my girl and then she did 30 hours I think in the first week and then the second week she was 40 hours full time. And from then on out, yeah, we’ve expanded.

12:57
So yeah, now, you know, I have a team of four full-time designers, me and then an accounts manager who works part-time, but thankfully she’s also my sister, so that’s just great as well.

13:17
Yeah, and now I already hear all the designers listening to this podcast thinking, is this all because of Instagram? Do you still get leads through Instagram?

Yes, definitely. It’s definitely our #1 lead generator for sure. TikTok is obviously another one. I do find the leads on TikTok aren’t as strong, like aren’t as hot. They typically want lower, you know smaller packages and we just don’t offer that.

13:37
But a lot, you know, now that I’ve built the business, a lot of our work is referrals, is clients coming back wanting more or maybe someone else that they know has started a business. So it’s that we’ve grown the network because of the style of work we do and we don’t actually brand ourselves as just a visual identity agency.

13:58
We do graphic design in general too. So we’ve kind of like expanded in that way and able to work with clients ongoing. Like one of our clients is a shopping centre and then we just work with them ongoing and create the campaigns, the marketing material for them.

Yeah, And that was through someone I knew. It wasn’t even through Instagram. That was the way that I got that role, yeah.

14:13
Yeah, and then you don’t offer website design, right? No, that’s kind of I think I heard you talking about it. Yeah. Like, oh, I was just thinking about it, but then.

When it was just me, you know, as you do as a business owner, when you start offering services, people will say, you know, do you do copywriting? Do you do photography? Do you do websites? And people started asking for websites a lot. And I was like, why don’t I just give it a go?

14:47
I know kind of how to create a website. I was. I created my own on Wix and I was like, I’m alright at it. I had no experience in it. I have to say I just bit the bullet and tried it. But during that process I think I took on two websites and I realized how much I hated it.

15:04
I was like, this is just not for me. There’s, I don’t know, I just, I just didn’t enjoy it. And then just from then on I made the decision I would never, well, I shouldn’t say never, but I didn’t want to offer website design. And even as I’ve grown and I’ve thought maybe I could bring someone else on who does web design.

But at the end of the day, I think when you are a business owner, although you have an expert, you know you might bring on a web developer within your team, if things go wrong, you are still the one to have that, that is having to go to that client, sort the issues out.

15:36
And I just didn’t want to have that relationship with clients for websites. So I just decided to cut it out. And now I have the best referrals ever. I just send them off away to these people I know and my friends and they do an awesome job, so if you’ve got good referrals, you’ll be away laughing.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I did add website design and that was in like 2016 or 17 because that’s where the money was. And it worked. Indeed, I do have a web designer and a developer, but I do outsource.

16:12
So basically they’re contractors and I hired them based on the needs. I trust them. It’s basically like they’re kind of like a white label designers and most of the time in my agency, video brand strategy, visual identity and then if it’s a product-based business, video packaging as well.

That’s all in-house and then website copyrighting that is something I never want to offer. Well, first, English is my second language. Second, I just don’t even feel like I can even hire someone to know if they’re good or not and I will not be able to fix it as you mentioned, if something happens.

So just like copywriting, website design and development. Is something that we do offer, but I always have to figure out exactly who’s going to work on it and it has to be like a high, really high-value project or you know, high-level clients in order for me to put all that effort.

17:07
Definitely because there is a lot of effort like similar thing happened with me with social media management. I got so many clients asking hey do you do social media management? I would love it if you did.

And I again I was like let’s just give it a go. So I ended up like building a relationship with someone who’s a really good friend of mine. Funny, I’m sitting in her office right now, but she, I bought her in to do the social media management on a white label service.

17:29
And I thought I’d just be able to pass it all on, literally just be like here you go. But again, there was so many issues that came up and that was not on her, it was almost on me. And they just kept, you know, the issues at the end of the day came back down to what I was doing and I had to fix them.

And I had no experience in social media management, although I’ve built my own audience. It’s very different when you do start to work with clients. It’s a whole different thing. But yeah, I decided with that as well. I decided to cut the service because I was like, I just don’t enjoy this one bit.

And the money wasn’t worth it at all. I was stressed. There was more stressed than stress than money. So I was like, let’s just get rid of that.

18:04
Yeah, yeah. I also feel like it’s websites because especially if those are like high paying clients, then it is worth it. It’s definitely worth it for us when it comes to website design. But I can totally see how social media management, unless you really know how to do it and have the right people like part-time, full-time within your social media agency, which is not what your agency is about, then it just it’s very difficult.

18:31
So hard like that’s a whole nother ball game. Like I give credit to people who do social media management. It’s tough and people want the best results for the smallest amount of money. Like that is the industry is the epitome of that and it’s hard and people just want to go viral and get 100,000 followers and it’s like that’s yeah it’s really tricky and then to try and teach them why that isn’t the ultimate goal is also really challenging.

18:58
So I take my head off to them. Yeah, so now when you’re all been talking about social media, I mean, social media can be a powerful tool for attracting clients in the design industry, just like you used it.

Could you share some insights into your approach to social media marketing and how it has contributed to the growth of your agency?

19:20
Yes, it’s been massive. Obviously without Instagram and TikTok, I would have not grown it to where it is today. It’s just the ability to connect with anyone all over the world. And I think people underestimate how powerful that is and how lucky we are to have, you know, something that we hold in our hands that’s essentially free marketing to anyone in the world.

19:43
Like, that’s wild. If you told people just ten years ago, they’d be like, Oh my God, we’d have to pay millions of dollars to have that reach. So even I’m talking about this now and I’m like, Oh my God, Kristy, do more social media posts. You know, it’s a wild tool.

20:00
And it’s like we all become location neutral where no one has any idea where you are in the world. And that doesn’t even matter. You know, we’re right down in New Zealand. People often think I’m in America. Recently I’ve been asked to a few conferences and they don’t realize I’m so far away.

20:18
And then they’re like, Oh my God, I didn’t know you were so far away. But anyway, it’s another story. But your social media is so powerful. It’s, you know, not only can you get new clients, which obviously what we set out to do, but you can also build different revenue streams through social media, which I would have not understood four years ago through building an audience.

20:41
And you don’t have to have a big audience to do this. You can build your passive income streams. You can start to sell your processes or maybe do little online courses or tutorials. You know, subscription-based services. Whatever it might be, you can have and build a passive income opportunity.

20:59
And play. Yeah, yeah, Team play, it’s all of that, which is so amazing when you get that set up and running and you’re getting money from doing nothing and then as well, you’ve got the whole other end of that, which is just it opens up other opportunities for you.

21:14
Like for me, speaking gigs that I never thought I would get the opportunity to do. And without social media, I would have never got those. But it’s a challenging game and it’s something that we all struggle with. It comes and, you know, ups and downs, and it’s a real challenge to not feel affected if your social media isn’t doing well or, you know, you’re finding your engagement slow.

21:38
But I think the best thing you can just do is keep going, keep creating. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed by social media, there’s a little quote and it’s: stop scrolling, just create. And I think that’s really important. I actually try my best not to scroll too much these days because I honestly do get really overwhelmed by what everyone else is doing.

21:58
Which is silly because, in essence, I’ve got everything that I could have ever wanted in a business and here I am being sad that I didn’t get 100,000 views on a video. Like, that’s ridiculous, you know? So yeah, it’s a challenging game, but it is so worth it in the end.

22:16
Yeah, definitely. Because I was just talking to a friend of mine. He’s a graphic designer and he has over 155,000 followers on Instagram for a year already. It’s like it’s just not growing. He’s like every single time and he posts, he like loses, you know, he has like big reach.

22:34
So he’s like losing 100 followers and then gains 100 followers, things constantly at the same number. So he was sharing how it’s very hard for creatives to continue because he was putting efforts for another year after not seeing any like an engagement.

22:51
And then he eventually slowly gave up. He never said that, but I said, you know he used to post like every single day and even though you know and and then as it was like slowing down, he’s just like transitioned to YouTube and now he’s trying to focus more on YouTube and trying to figure that out and why Instagram is not working.

23:12
They think that something like that can happen to other creatives as well, and maybe you have some insights on like why, why would something that was working all of a sudden stop working.

You know, that’s a great question because I guess if we all knew the answer we’d all be going like our reach would be continuing to rise. I think it’s like numerous things and like I’ve had this, you know, you’ll be a bit stagnant for a while and then won’t grow.

And I think it’s really important to remember that although at the end of the day 150,000 people, you know whatever your follower count is, is huge. But then if you think about even 1000 people in one room, that is so many people. So if you can reach even that, that’s fine.

And in a weird way what I’ve been doing recently and I don’t know if this is a very good strategy, but it’s a strategy to let allow you to let go of those numbers is lower your expectation. So create content. If you love it, amazing. Post it and just say your goal is to get a view, you know, 10,000 views on a reel.

Honestly, that’s my goal. As long as I hit that every time and I’ve got 220 something thousand followers, I just want to hit 10,000 views. I’ve lowered my expectations and I just create because I enjoy creating and I know it gets me work and I’m happy. Like I’m like that’s all I need as long as I hit that. So lower your expectations.

Again, not saying this is a strategy that’ll solve everything, but I think with social media we so focus on these massive high numbers and we just need to let that go. But I think if you’re stagnant with social media, the best thing you can do is try new things and look at other content, be inspired by it.

You know, take an idea and make it your own and just try different things. I think that’s the biggest thing, which he probably did do, you know, I’m sure there’s so many people out there who’ve tried multiple different things. They just find it’s not working. But yeah, you just have to make even just the simple idea of making short, choppy, quick content can help.

I think when you start social media and build create reels, they’re too long. They’re too drawn out. We just need a quick, you know, everything needs to be quick. I’ve been told sometimes my reels are too quick and I’m like, oh oops, that’s fine, I enjoy them.

25:59
Before we continue with this podcast episode, I just want to quickly remind you that if you’re a design business owner whose dream is to have a successful and profitable career so you can enjoy the freedom and flexibility that comes with it, then I have something for you.

The Profitable Designer program is my signature 12-week system that will help you improve your business, sign amazing high-paying clients and truly achieve your financial and lifestyle goals. Visit aventiveacademy.com/profit to check if you can join us now or if we are currently not accepting more designers into the program.

26:21
In that case, you will be able to join the wait list and be the first to know when we open the doors again. Now we’ll go back to the episode in a second, but I just want to add that designers who completed the program were able to sign 5-figure design clients, 10 times their pricing, reach 6 figures and beyond, make $20,000 per month while working only a few hours a week and more.

26:47
Here is what Julia said. It really has everything you could ever ask for to build a six-figure business that will allow you to have financial freedom and that’s why I personally did it like I wanted that flexibility.

29:03
I don’t want to have a big company with heaps of employees. That’s just not something I’m interested in. So how do I then scale my business to stay the exact same size but become a lot better to manage so that I can then do the things like social media management and do what I really enjoy?

29:20
Yeah. Oh, it’s a challenging game. Business is not easy. We’ll just say that.

29:23
Yeah. And I know we are now talking a lot about social media, but it feels like that is what drives your business and what helps you grow. And you’ve achieved remarkable success in growing your agency. Many designers still struggle to gain any traction on social media. What do you believe sets you apart? Whether it’s your approach, your designs, your mindset?

29:44
Do you mean in what I do or in general?

29:46
What you do with your social media. Because there are many designers who maybe even have way more posts than you have and have started in 2016 or 2017, while you started in 2020. What do you see as different about your approach?

30:01
I think it’s a few things. I really do think personality plays a much bigger part in all of this than people think it does. I’m actually speaking in a month at a conference in America and I talk about this, about bringing your personality to the table and intertwining your personal brand with your business. As someone who does that, you can then hopefully relate to other people who are similar to you, who have the same sort of experiences.

30:24
So I think I used to say anyone can get on social media and do really well, even if you’re shy. But I think in some aspects, even if you’re shy, you do have to put yourself out there and be a little bit more extroverted to get yourself out on social media. So personality plays a really big part in it. Just try and share your personality; don’t be afraid to be a bit quirky and a bit weird. Although I might show up with makeup on and my hair done, I am a little bit unusual and funny and quirky in my own way and I’m not afraid to share that. So that would certainly be something.

30:59
Another thing I think, you know, I’m not the best designer in the world at all. I’ve got so much to learn and so much to upskill, but it’s the way that I think I present my work, the way that I share it. Again, it’s that really chop, quick-changing reels that are really engaging. It’s a bit of storytelling as well, as simple as sharing a time lapse. But over that time lapse, you’ve got a story about maybe who you are or five lessons I’ve learned as a graphic designer in my career. You’re telling stories. You’re sharing your vulnerability and your insights.

31:34
And then another part of it is really just connecting with your true, authentic self. I hate using that word “authentic” because what the heck is that? If you said to someone, “go and be authentic,” they’d say, “I don’t know who I am. How am I supposed to be authentic?” But in a weird way, if you can dig deep into your childhood, your upbringing, your experiences, that is where you can find your authentic self and who that person is. For me, as simple as this might be, I named my business from my love of pink and my love of ponies as a kid. I didn’t realize the impact that that would have on my business today, you know? And now I get referred to as the Pony Girl. I’m like, “Oh, I don’t know how I feel about that one, but that’s fun.” Hopefully that was a whole lot of information, but yeah.

32:17
Yeah, but I love that you mentioned personality because a lot of designers are just hiding behind cameras. And I understand, you know, they’re introverts, I am an extrovert. So for me, that’s easy to be in front of the camera. But when you mention personality, I was like, well, I know that you run, and I feel like I know you through social media, even though this is the first time we’ve talked. I feel like I already know this girl. I know how many employees she has. I know how her office looks. And if I was to hire a designer, that would definitely be you because I feel like I know you. And not just in terms of the business perspective, but I also know your values. I know you’re going to do a half marathon coming this weekend or next weekend, right? I know all those things, you know, and it just feels like if I want to work with someone, that would definitely be you, even though you don’t know me as much. But from the client’s perspective, I would want to work with someone who I do know.

33:09
I think it’s interesting too. Chris Do is a perfect example of an introvert who pretends to be an extrovert, and he talked about that at Adobe Max a lot. He said that public speaking terrifies him. He’s not someone who’s super extroverted, but he kind of in a way puts on a bit of a persona like his extroverted Chris Do to be able to go out there and do big things. I think we kind of have to do that. If you want to grow on social media and build this network and go out there and do these incredible things, you’re not going to achieve those if you don’t show yourself. There’s a really good quote: “Opportunity dances with those on the dance floor.” So if you are on the dance floor, opportunity could come dancing with you.

33:54
Yeah, they’ve got to be there. Definitely. I was actually talking to Chris Do just a few weeks ago, and he was sharing about being a loud extrovert, which is basically he’s a loud introvert where he comes on stage and every single time before he’s about to get on the stage, he feels that like, “Oh,” but I feel like we all feel it. It just depends if you’re going to do it or not. And every single time it becomes easier. I was listening to a podcast interview or something with Lady Gaga, and she said she still feels nervous every single time she’s on stage. So you either let that be, learn to live with it, or eventually you will become so good in that it will not bother you.

34:33
Definitely. I think if you want to build an audience and build an emotional connection with people, it’s about bringing those people into your world. A perfect example is Taylor Swift. She does it so well. She brings people into her world. She’s sharing her experiences of when she got broken up with or when she broke up with a boy and she sings about them. She’s sharing her experiences. Then she brings people into her world. She has this style that she comes out with on stage, the glitter, the out-there looks, and now everyone’s so immersed in her world, they come to her shows wearing the same thing. The ability to bring people into your world is how you really build a brand that is really strong and build a business that’s really strong and captivating as well.

35:12
Yeah. And so now to go back to growing an agency and going from being a solo designer to having a team. As someone who has evolved from primarily being a solo designer to leading a team, how has your role shifted within the agency? Do you still actively participate in design projects or are you more like a project manager or a CEO? If you can just tell us what it’s like within a small design agency now?

35:36
Yeah, it’s changed so much for sure. And I feel like it’s always probably changing, right? Always changing and always evolving. I’m hugely across everything in terms of the design work. My team is right next to me. I’m looking at them right now and they’re all there, and we collaborate and talk about projects. Just yesterday, we were all looking at a brand mark that we were creating for a brand. All of us were standing there talking about it, bringing all of the minds together to hopefully come out with a better outcome.

36:04
But, you know, we do a lot of that. I do a lot of project management, which I don’t love doing, and I want to figure out a way that I can get rid of that without bringing on someone else. Even my team, they also do some project management with clients. They are talking with clients. It’s not just me. So I have diversified in that way, allowing them to connect with the clients directly.

36:30
So yeah, a lot of project management, marketing. I create all of the reels that you see on my Instagram, plan all that because that is essentially our number one biggest lead generator. A lot of that, a lot of sales. I do all the sales calls, I do proposals for businesses, our accounts manager does all the inquiries, which is great. But yeah, just a lot of conversation with my team, my clients, and as of right now, we’re just getting our new website, it’s about to be launched. So preparing all of that and preparing for the speaking gig that’s coming up in a couple of weeks.

37:02
But I feel like I’m wearing too many hats at the moment and I’m really struggling to do things that are really great because I’m too spread out. In terms of design, I wish I was designing way more than I am. I spend more time in emails than I do in Illustrator these days, which sucks, but it’s trying to figure out how I can strengthen the business without growing. It’s a difficult thing to do, but yeah.

37:36
And you mentioned a few times without growing and how you don’t want to grow. Are there any particular reasons? Have you tried and then scaled down or why is that?

37:47
I don’t want to grow. Yeah, I could definitely empathize with that. That’s how I am too. Six people maximum, maybe, if I really have to. But it’s interesting. Like, I thought, you know, 10 years ago, if I was to have an agency, I could say that I want a business with 20 employees and I would love that. But essentially when you grow a business, it’s really hard because you become a manager of people. And I just don’t want to do that. It’s like that’s not really why I set out to do this. I love my team and they’re so incredible. And maybe I could hire one more person but even then I’m like do I really want to do that? Do I really want to hire one more person?

38:25
The other option is for me to hire a creative director or a general manager who almost comes into what I’m doing right now to fill this role. But obviously with that comes a big cost. So it’s trying to figure out what to do there. And I like a small agency. Like I really do. I like it being small and intimate and we all help each other out. I like that. I don’t want to build a big sort of corporate business that sounds really stressful, so.

39:00
But now it’s like a future question, but where do you see yourself or your business in the next two to five years?

39:05
Yeah, well, you know, as a 31-year-old woman who’s married, kids are definitely something that is on the horizon. And I think as a woman, this is a whole other conversation. This is a huge thing for someone who owns a business. So invested in my business, the thought of having a child, I’m like, I’m so busy already. How am I going to fit a kid in? But I do want a family and so I’m like, you know, we’ll just make it work when it happens. Maybe that’s the time where I have to hire a creative director or a general manager or someone to fill in my shoes. Because I physically won’t be able to do all this work and raise a child. Because I also don’t really want to be a mom who. And there’s no judgment to any moms who do this. But I think when I do have a child, my mindset will probably change a bit and my business won’t be my number one priority. And sure, if you’re a mother and you want to work full time in your business, but I think if I’m going to have a child, I want to be able to spend quite a bit of time with them. So yeah, how do I go about that?

39:58
Honestly, that’s one of the biggest things that I think about going forward for the business. There’s no way I would ever want to not have the business. This is my baby and I love it and I’m so proud of it. But that’s kind of the next hurdle for me. It’s actually probably not something that’s hugely spoken about in the graphic design industry or the branding industry, how women cope with this. So I think it’s an interesting topic, but that’s kind of the next step. I mean, I’ve always wanted to release courses, which I will do one day, but I’ve been saying this for like three years, so apologies to those who are waiting.

40:38
Yeah, it’s actually all connected because in 2020, so I had my first child in February 2020, four weeks prior to the lockdowns and everything. And so I didn’t have a choice but to be a stay-at-home mom because all daycares were closed. But I also had my business. So what I did is I started waking up at 4:30 AM. You just had to start waking up and then I was working from 5 till 7:00 and then the baby wakes up and then her first nap is around 9:00 and then I worked from 9 till 10. And I was just picking up all these gaps. And honestly, I was just so much more productive working fewer hours than when I had full-time hours to work on the business. Because you know that you can’t get 10 things done. You get to five and then realize they’re not too important. I’m going to put them on a long-term or short-term list. Because I have those, like I have my to-do list for Monday, Tuesday, and then I have weekends. Of course, that never happens. And then I have short-term, long-term, you know, like it will happen one day. And even if you know, there’s still so many things on that to-do list, which means they were not important, but maybe I would spend time working on them if I didn’t have a kid.

41:49
Yeah, exactly. And that’s the thing with anything, regardless of if you have kids or not, it’s like just what are your priorities? I guess that comes down to if you want to make time for something you can. And that was actually like circling right back to the 100-day design challenge. People ask me all the time, how did you have the time? Because you’re working full time and you were trying to get a design out every day. It’s like you, you can make the time, like you said, wake up at 4:30 AM and create a post, you know, create a graphic or maybe you have to stay up a little bit later to get it done. Or maybe don’t watch that Vampire Diaries show that you really want to watch, which I’m really into at the moment. It’s a bad addiction. But, you know, just getting away from these things and really figure out what your priorities are. I think that’s something that you have to do when you own a business. If you really want to achieve big things, you’ve just got to knock out things that aren’t important and bring in the things that are.

42:35
Definitely. And I also feel like designers, not just designers, any business owners, they’re thinking like, where are the clients going to come from? How can they get better clients? And then they try to spread themselves too thin. And they go on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, blogging, and they’re like, well, this is not working, so you have to have the priority.

42:55
Yes. And for you, that was Instagram. I’m assuming you repost to TikTok? Or do you also have a separate strategy for TikTok?

43:02
No, it’s all reposting. I just share the same thing across both of them and then even our accounts manager, she shares everything onto Pinterest. And that was something that’s happened recently. We’ve just started posting on Pinterest and that’s been going really well. Our impressions have gone up and we’re trying to do the same with LinkedIn. It’s just the same content. Honestly, I treat them all the same. It’s just putting more eyes on you. The more platforms you can get across, which is hard to do by yourself because there is so much time and effort to repost.

43:27
And it sounds like, “Oh well, you already have that video, you just post it again.” Well, it’s not that. It’s like grab the captions, grab the hashtags, grab the cover, link to this. It still takes a lot of time to even just repost.

43:37
Exactly. So much time and effort to repost, yeah. And that’s where delegating is good, to do that kind of thing, because anyone could really come along and help out with that.

43:47
Delegates, yeah, definitely. I feel like we’ve been on so many tangents.

43:51
I love it.

43:52
Yeah, exactly. OK, well finally, what advice would you give to aspiring design business owners who are looking to grow their business and maybe achieve similar success as you did in your design business?

44:06
Yeah, I’ve got two bits of advice. Number one would be around a quote, which I feel like I finish every podcast on, but I’m going to say it again. The quote is: “You’re far too smart to be the only thing standing in your own way.” And we too often just put a wall up for no reason because of the way we think about something. So you’re too smart for that. You can do it. Don’t let your internal feelings stop you from doing something.

44:31
And then the other bit of advice is around social media. If you want to grow and be successful and do awesome things, social media is the way to go. That is almost the portal, like the door to opportunities that you’ve never even dreamed of. So get your ass on social media because it can be so powerful. Just chip away at it. Don’t put expectations on yourself. It’s going to take time to get better at it. It’s going to take time to get good at it. But just understand the earlier you start, the better you’ll be. But yeah, that’s my bits of feedback.

45:06
I love that. And as we wrap up this episode, if you want to see some of Kristy’s incredible work and stay updated on her latest projects, be sure to check out her website and follow her on social media. Kristy, would you mind sharing your website? I know the new one is coming soon and social media handles with our listeners.

45:23
Yeah, so the website is PinkPonyCreative.com and then social media. On Instagram, I’m Kristy.thePinkPony and then everywhere else it’s just PinkPonyCreative. But yeah, follow along. If you’ve got any questions, please ask. Always like to connect with new people.

45:40
Thank you again, Kristy, it was a pleasure talking to you.

45:43
Oh, that was so lovely to be on your podcast. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

45:47
Yeah, thank you.

45:49
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46:09
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46:26
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46:46
Until next time, be sure to connect with us on Instagram at @AventiveAcademy, where we share valuable business tips, stories, and resources for brand, graphic, and web design business owners. Bye for now, your host, Kady Sandel.