Carina welcomes her friend Crista Grasso on the podcast to talk about strategy, systems, and team! As designers we are always looking for ways to up level our business and Crista knows alot about taking companies from single entrepreneurs to growing and scaling.
Listen to Crista’s practical tips for building systems in your business and thinking strategically!
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina talks about Imposter Syndrome. She finds that Imposter Syndrome only pops up when we compare ourselves to others. In that way, it’s not really Imposter Syndrome, it’s Comparison Syndrome. Have you ever had a moment when you look at someone else’s work and you think, “Wow. I’m not as good as them.” The feeling that gives us often makes us feel like an imposter. One tip that Carina gives us is to make sure we’re not comparing ourselves to people we shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to. A new designer should not compare themselves to someone who has twenty years of experience. Another way to avoid comparison is to celebrate that someone has created something beautiful for us to enjoy. The last way to overcome Comparison Syndrome is to focus on getting better at our skill as a designer. Also, if we ask ourselves, “Why not me?” then it will keep us motivated to continue to work hard and win. Finally, a great way to get over Comparison Syndrome is to find a Community that will support us and help us to level up. When people come together and work together to make everyone in the group better then the temptation to compare disappears.
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
Carina’s sister and Etsy expert SuiKim Friedmann joins the Make and Design podcast today. The sisters laugh a lot and discuss which version of Pride and Prejudice they like the best. They also take a deep dive into what it takes to set up an online coaching and mentoring program. This includes talking about how gratifying it is to see help people along in building their own careers. Their discussion takes them into a listing of pros and cons to programs that give you just course content and programs that include mentoring and masterminding. SuiKim talks about the learning curve she has faced in implementing a coaching program. Find out the power that joining a mastermind unlocks. SuiKim calls out Carina for not listening to her last appearance in episode 116.
You can find SuiKim’s work at www.suikim.com. Who gets their first name as a domain name? Awesome! We checked out “carina.com” to see if it was available and someone has put up a pretty purple flower at that site for all the world to see. Shucks.
On today’s episode of the Make + Design Podcast, Carina talks about three powerful design strategies that will help keep you motivated and leveling up. These are strategies that will help you get paid for your design work.
Strategy one: you need to work smart and hard. You need to be going out of your way to work smart. As you do, you will get better at design to the point that design work can become relaxing and happy even.
Strategy two: Repurpose EVERYTHING. If you draw something and use it in one medium, use it in all the mediums! Carina gives us some great examples of how to do this and lets us know that something that is repurposed needs to be transformed and formatted correctly across the mediums.
Strategy three: Do the math. What does Carina mean by this? She explains that calculating your work rate and how many designs you can do per day will allow you to calculate how many designs you will be able to release in a year. The more content you create, the more you will earn. If you don’t “do the math” then you may fall into the trap of not producing enough to win as a designer.
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
Today on Make + Design, Carina takes a quick look at the differences between Photoshop and Illustrator and gives some of the reasons that good designers use both tools. Photoshop is super useful for everyday things like editing photos. Illustrator is the main tool for professional designers though.
The first difference that Carina goes into is the difference between pixels and vectors. In Photoshop, every image is divided into tiny little squares. When you enlarge pixels, the image begins to distort as the squares get bigger. In Illustrator, images are divided into vectors, which is just a line. When you enlarge an image in Illustrator, it continues to keep the same high quality. Illustrator is the place we’ll be for drawing and designing. Photoshop is great for brochures and photos.
The next difference that Carina delves into is layering differences. In Photoshop, we use the laying system to keep things organized. In Illustrator, layering is not as important. The pallet system allows designers in Illustrator to leave design work all over their artboard, which can help with creativity. Carina cautions designers who spend most of their time in Illustrator that it’s easy sometimes to forget to layer in Photoshop and things get disorganized quickly.
The place where Photoshop really shines is in the difference between .jpg, .tif, .ai, and .eps files. We all use JPEG and TIF files in everyday life. AI and EPS files aren’t used as often in everyday life and even our Illustrator files end up as JPEGs for final production. This is the biggest reason we need Photoshop. We want to give our end user a variety of ways to use our files.
Great designers use both!
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina welcomes master of negotiation Susie Tomenchok. With years of experience negotiating deals for some of the largest companies in the world, Susie came to the realization that negotiation goes on all around us in every facet of life. Susie tells us about one of the opening stories in her new book, “The Art of Negotiation without Manipulation,” where her kids negotiated with her at Target. Her kids came up with a system that would allow them to get Susie to buy them what they wanted at Target by using negotiation tactics.
One of Carina’s big takeaways from the book was that the person who she negotiates with the most is herself. Susie then walks us through a story of a friend of hers in the corporate world who needed to negotiate with herself to work up the inner belief that she deserved a promotion at work. Part of Susie’s friend’s inner negotiation was with the excuses and rationalizations she was allowing to hold her back. Carina and Susie then share experiences from their own lives to show how often this type of inner negotiation happens. Often the inner negotiation has to do with how worthy we feel for an opportunity that’s in front of us.
Susie teaches us that when we get a “no” answer from someone that a “no” is data. It gives us a reference point so that we can understand what needs to change in order for something to work out. Don’t retreat from a “no.” Lean into it and get curious about the “no.” Ask questions. Find out more. Have a conversation. Another aspect of navigating these situations is having the ability to restate our value proposition, to ask the question “how does this feel?” and then to practice silence. The silence is where the other person will fill in the data that you don’t know.
Susie also teaches us about anchoring. Anchoring is generally the first number thrown out during a formal negotiation. The final result is usually somewhat close to the starting number. One thing, Susie tells us, that makes our anchor stronger is to compare the anchor data point to past results and experiences. This helps the other side know that your anchor is reasonable and gives them value for the stated amount. Providing this explanation also creates a space where the other side starts to mentally prepare to say “yes” in the negotiation by imagining how the deal fits in with their situation.
Carina asks whether it’s better to be the anchor or to let the other party be the anchor. Susie tells us that it’s best to anchor when we are really clear about the value of our product or position and about what we want out of the negotiation. If we are not really clear on our value proposition then it can be better to let them go first. If you let the other party go first, though, Susie tells us that you must be ready to get them back on track if their number is way off from where you want to end up. Susie and Carina talk about the differences between personalities that like to anchor versus personalities who would rather not be the anchor. Not being the anchor allows you to get additional data by learning more about the other side’s process and the factors that go into their decision making.
Carina asks Susie to go into detail about a story in “The Art of Negotiation without Manipulation” that leads to the statement, “Shine a light on any opportunity. Always assume it is up for grabs.” This section of the book taught Carina to look for opportunity in every situation. Susie tells us a secret: the story Carina is referring to is actually about herself. Susie teaches that a question to ask ourselves when we’re facing an opportunity that we’re talking ourselves out of is to ask “why not me?” She concludes that all successful people feel like they’re not ready for the opportunity before them at some point, but they push through by finding a reason to answer the question, “why not me?” Carina has seen that among people who are otherwise equal, the one who will succeed is the one who believes in herself. Susie’s hack is to see herself in other people’s eyes. People tend to see us in a good light so it’s a lifehack to see us ourselves the way that other people do.
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
About Today’s Guest Susie Tomenchok is an expert negotiator who has negotiated deals for some of the largest companies in the world. Susie’s new book, “The Art of Negotiation without Manipulation” is available at www.booknegotiation.com. Also check out www.negotiationlove.com for a freebie from Susie! Susie’s Instagram feed is full of everyday tips and stories about the negotiation that goes on in our everyday lives. Find it @susietomenchok.
On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina talks about the progress that designers make over time. She talks about taking a somewhat embarrassing (for her!) trip down memory lane when she recently searched for herself on the internet. Over 15 years of search results, she saw a lot of progress in her design work. She had a similar experience when she taught college, seeing the huge improvement that design students made from their first year of college through their senior year of college. While going to college is a great way to get a design education, Carina doesn’t recommend college for those transitioning into a second career. For those looking to start a second career, finding a great, year-long program that teaches specific skills is the better way to go.
Carina invites all of us to go back and look at our design work so that we can see the improvement and progress that we’ve made over time. She encourages us to stick with it because good things will come as we continue to work and improve. __________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
Today on the Make + Design Podcast, design expert Carina Gardner gets real about what it takes to make a full time living as a surface pattern designer. In Carina’s opinion, there are a lot more possibilities beyond “surface pattern design” and she goes into other ways designers can expand their thinking to give themselves more revenue streams with their work. Carina knows many designers who make five-figure salaries in a year. She then delves into what it takes to earn a six figure salary as a designer. 1. You have to get faster in Illustrator. 2. You have to have multiple streams of income. 3. You have to know the right markets where you can sell your products. She goes into more detail in her Design Bootcamp and into a *lot* more detail in her Design Suite program. Carina spends some time talking about ways that designers who push themselves into 3D design not only open a new market to sell their designs in but they also level up their 2D, surface pattern design work.
Carina tells us about the three purposes of her Design Suite program: 1. Learn how to design. 2. Learn how to produce great design work. 3. Learn how to make money as a designer by placing products in the best markets. Carina knows the best markets with the lowest barriers to entry and shares her insider knowledge with her members. The first step to learning more about Design Suite is to attend one of Carina’s Design Bootcamps (link below).
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina talks about flow state and not just how to find it but how to create it. Carina has discovered that to be the best designer possible producing the best work, she needs to get into flow. Flow occurs when you are so absorbed in the thing at hand that time stands still, you don’t notice the things around you, and you find yourself in an amazing state where you just move forward. Sometimes we don’t notice we’re in flow until after the fact. Flow state has a lot of amazing benefits: your enjoyment goes up, your ability goes insane, and you even get a dopamine hit. For Carina, there are some really specific things that get her into flow. As you evaluate when you get into flow, pay attention to the things that got you there (did you have a big block of time or was it something else?).
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina talks about what makes a good Community. The more that Carina has thought about her community, the more she’s thought about what it takes to lead a community. Community makes us stronger, more creative, and more likely to reach our goals.
First, Carina shares her thoughts on finding a community that creates an atmosphere where members are comfortable giving and taking. Not only should the leader of the community participate and give; you should look for a community where members are willing to reach out and help members who have questions. A great community is a fifty-fifty mix of giving and taking. After six months of learning, the hope is that those who “take” at first will have a chance to “give” down the road.
Second, in Carina’s opinion, you should find a community where members feel safe. The internet is full of spaces where people can comment in snarky ways or act in ways that are toxic and those spaces feel unsafe. Carina finds that if members pay into a community then the amount of negativity goes down to almost zero. A safe community helps us to be better because committed people lift us up and make us better.
Third, find a community where the leader sets the tone. If you want a community that is excited and fun then find a leader who rises to the occasion and brings a level of energy and positivity to the group. Carina shares some thoughts on what to do if your current community isn’t feeding you with positivity as well.
Finally, Community is really just a way of creating relationships with people you can do amazing things with and that you can fall back on when things are hard. Great communities foster great relationships that grow beyond the community itself.
__________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________
About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.
Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.
