Two Red Chairs

Don’t worry, it’s still going to exist, but the Two Red Chairs podcast name is going to be retired and transition to be called the G’day Design Life podcast with a new season of content.

Still keeping the same content and the format going, just under a different name given I no longer sit in a red chair any more that was the calling card for the show initially when it started out.

And all of this is part of a shift in my efforts with G’day Design Life to move it across to my G’day Frank brand - especially integrating it with similar branded elements like the pink brand colour, fonts and visual elements.

So you’ll see this podcast back up and running in a couple of weeks with new episodes as it continues on - but with a new opening/closing title sequence and cover art to go along with the name change.

To keep in touch with this podcast and any updates here are some relevant links to follow along:

In this week’s episode, I’m chatting with American branding designer and coach, Brandi Sea from Albuquerque-Santa Fe.

In our chat, Brandi shares her design life story that took her from agency life as an in-house creative, to starting her own business and since giving back to fellow creatives in in-house design roles or as creative entrepreneurs to be leaders with confidence and create work that gets noticed

We dive into a common experience we all have at one point or another, which is comparison-itis - comparing yourself to others behind or ahead of you. But also how our design life journey is all about learning more and also sharing your knowledge with others.

To connect with Brandi:

In this week’s episode, I’m chatting with British branding designer, Danielle Clarke from Derbyshire, UK.

In our chat, Danielle shares her story of becoming a design business owner and scratching that itch to start her business during the pandemic last year. It came out of realising the unhappiness in unfulfilling jobs that Danielle was in but then seeing that the road to fulfilment was by having a hands-on process when helping business owners develop their brands and share that journey with them.

So this is a story about having the courage to do something that breaks the mould of what we’re told to do of going to school and then getting a job. It’s scary but for those of us that take that leap, we find our place in what we feel we were meant to do.

Also, during our chat Danielle brings up her gratitude journal - if you’d like to check that out, here is the link to find the same one: https://bit.ly/3taYAEp

This week it’s just me, Frank, sharing a design business problem for your to learn from.

Back in episode 19, the first episode of 2021, I shared a problem I had of line item pricing a proposal that had a client tick off deliverables they deemed unnecessary.

For the second edition of my problems to learn from, this one happened recently to me and it revolves around discounting your rates for clients. To hear what it was alllll about and to avoid making the same mistake, you better jump on board this podcast train for a short 17 min episode.

This week’s episode I’m chatting with the founder and CEO of Hnry - James Fuller from Wellington, New Zealand

QUICK CAVEAT - Hnry is a service that is currently limited to Australian and New Zealand based business owners. But do reach out to their team if you want them to look at a bringing their service to you country.

So these guys at Hnry do things differently when it comes to accounting and managing your business finances. Hnry pays your taxes as you earn, so you never have to think about tax and compliance ever again! Like, common!

When you sign up, you no longer need an accountant or accounting software, you don't need to calculate or make tax payments any more, it can manage your expenses and invoicing, you also don't need to try and get the best deals on your professional insurances - The Hnry platform and service do it all for you.

It’s a really great chat as the Hnry team really put solopreneur/freelancers at the heart of their purpose to deliver a great experience that to be honest, takes away the boring and confusing stuff about business. So do check this episode out and the service they are offering.

-

To find out more about Hnry: https://hnry.co

This week’s episode I’m chatting with Norwegian branding designer and strategist, Marianne Børresen from Oslo, Norway.

In our chat, Marianne shares her design life journey that led her to Interbrand at the start of her design career after university and took her through a raft of experiences working in agency life. Until finding her feet after a health battle to start her own business, Creative Garden.

Towards the end of the chat Marianne also shares a great tip to manage your business and personal finances that is well worth the listen to avoid the mental stress our finances can have on our creativity.

This week’s episode I’m chatting with an extraordinary Aussie designer, Matt Haynes who runs TDC - @the.design.conference up in Brisbane, Australia in June (16-18th).

Now this episode is next level because Matt shares a tonne about his life and philosophy for it. Having started out in life as a professional baseball player and even making it to the MLB, Matt then turned to design after a stint in trying his hand at architecture. But what followed his design studies, was the birth of TDC for his fellow classmates.

I’m also partnering up with Matt and TDC to offer you 20% off for in-person and virtual tickets to the event using the promo code ‘gdayfrank’ - We’d both love to see you there or be a part of it online.

To get tickets to TDC and find out more info: https://www.thedesignconference.com.au/

EP 29 - Only ONE logo option? - with Waldemar Perez

This week’s episode I’m chatting with fellow branding designer Waldemar Perez from San Juan, Puerto Rico, about the impact that presenting only one logo option to his clients has made on his design process.

I’m very aligned myself with Waldemar’s strategy to only show client’s one finished concept when it comes to logo design. As it limits confusion because choice is taken off the table. But we also cover how to ensure that it’s the right move and some of the things to be aware of or at least frame well in a client’s mind when taking this approach, so that expectations are on par between all parties.

To connect with Waldemar find him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walde_brands

This week’s episode I’m chatting with fellow branding designer Richard Ajayi from Lagos, Nigeria, about his transition of implementing strategic thinking into his branding process.

For his process and client’s success, implementing brand stategy has allowed Rich to become a better designer and more trusted parter with his clients. To be able to solve his client’s brand related problems with more in-depth consideration and the execution of more than just a logo design.

This week I’m sitting down in the proverbial red chairs with supermum and creative business owner, Georgia ‘George’ Mussett.

As a fellow Aussie branding designer, George shares with us her story of how she’s built her own sustainable creative business.

In our chat we cover the impact stepping into the spotlight had when showing up on camera for her business, as George recounts how building a personal brand tailored to her ideal clients shaped that success.

Not to mention that it has now lead to coaching other creatives to lead a similar path that George is walking, to give back and grow her business at the same time.

This week I have a conversation with fellow branding designer, turned brand strategist, Stef Hamerlinck from Belgium.

Stef shares his journey of how he discovery brand strategy and his transition of thinking from being a designer to uncovering what strategy means to him and for the clients he has worked with. Both in the businesses he’s worked for and now in his own business.

Stef is always a very interesting person to chat with, especially as his perspective on what many of us know as branding may be a little different but also a little more down-to-earth realistic when it comes down to measuring expectations of what branding can do. As well as the ways branding can impact the a customer or business that we may take for granted.

I am once again extremely proud and privileged to have another equally inspiring woman on the Two Red Chairs podcast.

Amy Kuo, all the way from Orlando, Florida (USA) joined me on the proverbial red chair to share her story about how she started her design business Author Brand Studio.

Now you might think, why would you quit a dream job at Disney?

Well this is story that caught me off guard when Amy was so open about losing a parent and nearly both in a short space of time and subsequently left her dream job at Disney to best process that time in her life.

But it lead Amy to start her own business and using the existing skills she had learned from her time working at Disney and applied them to how Amy now runs her business 3 years later.

To connect with Amy find her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorbrandstudio

I’m always in awe of my fellow creatives who are self-taught. Many of whom are far better designers than I am, which makes me really question that $30k design degree even more… that I’m still paying off.

This week is an inspiring, authentic and down to earth conversation with a fellow Aussie designer, Loz. She’s had a hard road to get to where she is and it’s her story that I’m so grateful to be able to share with you all. As I’m equally amazed by the way adversity shapes creativity for the better and for the betterment of our lives.

To connect with Loz find her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lozchaidesign

Who hasn’t sent an email that wasn’t supposed to be sent? Maybe it went to the wrong person or you included the wrong people.

Well this is what happened to fellow Sydney designer, Jeremy Mura when he was an intern designer and made a blunder sending his bosses a CC’d email chain that shouldn’t have been forwarded on 🙈

To connect with Jeremy, find him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejeremymura

It’s a hat-trick of Canadian’s to join me on the red chairs! Max Goodwin is with me this week to share his recent story of finding his feet in a design job. It’s a story many of us will have tried and maybe failed or succeeded.

But what Max did (in addition to changing the line of work he did from Engineering to Design) at the same time as sending out hundreds of resumes. Was to take the initiative of starting work on the side to establish his own presence as a designer with his own business.

It’s something I wish more designer could also do, especially as it helps us grow a designers but also due to the fact there aren’t always an abundance of design jobs out there for entry level junior design roles.

To connect with Max, find him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxgoodwindesign

Well what do we have here…another Canadian? Nick McGraw from McGrawesome Design is this weeks guest in the second red chair. Sharing a story I heard him talk about in a Clubhouse chat a couple of weeks ago. Which was about how he overcame a troublesome client that left Nick with no other choice but to part ways, refund the money and learn from that experience.

It’s a story many of us as creative business owners may have experienced or may experience in the future and I hope Nick’s story is one we can all learn from to once again notice the red flags when they present themselves AND how to manage that situation professionally.

We are back with guests on Two Red Chairs with this new format of sharing design and business stories with one another to learn from, be inspired by, relate to or even avoid some of the pitfall experiences we have as creatives.

And my first guest for 2021 is Julian Rotondo from Montreal, Canada. Julian shares his story of a recent problem client who talked Julian into helping them with their shambles of a business. Leaving Julian to have to wear the experience and treat it as a learning experience for the future of his design business.

To connect with Julian, find him on Instagram: @juju.branding