Brand Design Masters - Personal Branding, Creative Entrepreneurship, Small Business Marketing & Career Success for Designers and Content Creators – Details, episodes & analysis
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Brand Design Masters - Personal Branding, Creative Entrepreneurship, Small Business Marketing & Career Success for Designers and Content Creators
For designers, creatives, entrepreneurs, and content creators who want to level up their careers and creative businesses. Hosted by Philip VanDusen, Brand Consultant and founder of BONFIRE, this show explores personal branding, content creation, freelancing, and creative career growth.
Philip and his guests deliver practical coaching, strategies, and inspiration to help you market your work, attract new clients, grow your influence, and build long-term success. Covering personal branding, content creation, freelancing, digital marketing, and creative entrepreneurship, every episode is designed to support your growth as a creative professional in the Creative Economy.
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In this candid and informal rant, Philip shares nine crucial pieces of advice for creative professionals navigating today's challenging job market. Drawing from over 30 years of experience, Philip emphasizes the importance of self-advocacy, understanding HR's role, building a personal brand, and maintaining a mindset of continual learning.
He also discusses industry ageism, the significance of networking, having a versatile skill set, and the complexities surrounding non-compete agreements. Additionally, Philip introduces 'Bonfire, the mastermind community aimed at helping mid to late-career creative professionals build their personal brands and professional independence.
14:48 Show Your Work: Navigating Non-Compete Agreements
18:28 Conclusion and Bonfire Community
________________________________________
BONFIRE MASTERMIND:
https://philipvandusen.com/bonfire
WEBSITE
https://www.philipvandusen.com
BRAND•MUSE NEWSLETTER
https://www.philipvandusen.com/muse
CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL COACHING
https://philipvandusen.com/oneonone
BRAND CONSULTING
https://philipvandusen.com/brand-consulting
BRAND STRATEGY 101 COURSE
https://philipvandusen.com/bs101
YOUTUBE
https://www.youtube.com/c/philipvandusen
LINKEDIN
https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipvandusen/
THREADS
https://www.threads.net/@philipvandusen
FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/philipvandusen.agency/
INSTAGRAM
https://www.instagram.com/philipvandusen/
____________________________________
Philip VanDusen is a branding consultant and the owner of a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on building successful brands for themselves and the clients and customers they serve.
Investing in Yourself: with Branding Expert Robert Smith
Episode 138
Monday, November 4, 2024 • Duration 41:33
In this episode of the Brand Design Masters podcast, host Phillip VanDusen welcomes Robert Smith, an internationally recognized branding expert, professor, and author. They discuss the importance of investing time in oneself rather than focusing on transient technical skills, emphasizing the value of creativity, peer interaction, and mental health.
Robert shares insights from his latest book 'Stop Looking for Zebras', which guides creative professionals on achieving long-term career success. Key topics include the relevance of human-driven creativity in the face of AI advancements, the significance of networking and mentorship, and strategies for maintaining passion and confidence in the creative industry.
Book: "Stop Looking for Zebras": https://a.co/d/54KQRlP
ThinkSmith Website: https://www.think-smith.com/
00:00 The Best Investment for Longevity in the Industry
00:25 Introduction to the Brand Design Masters Podcast
00:42 Meet Robert Smith: Branding Expert and Author
01:50 The Journey of Writing 'Stop Looking for Zebras'
03:49 Teaching Design: Beyond Technical Skills
08:33 Addressing Self-Confidence in Creative Careers
12:47 The Impact of AI and Automation on Design
17:58 Strategies for Creative Professionals to Stand Out
How to Become a Creative Director
Episode 129
Monday, September 2, 2024 • Duration 15:53
Let’s do a deep dive into the journey of becoming a Creative Director! In this episode, I’ll dispel common myths and provide a detailed roadmap on how to rise through the ranks in the creative industry.
You’ll learn why hands-on experience in design, copywriting, video editing, UX/UI, and other creative fields is essential, and why you can't just jump straight into a senior management role without experience as a designer. We’ll cover the importance of mentorship, taking and giving constructive criticism, and developing a wide range of skills.
I’ll also discuss the time investment required, salary expectations, and the broader responsibilities that come with the title. From pitching clients to writing creative briefs and developing brand strategies, we’ll explore all facets of the role.
Whether you’re just starting out in the creative field or looking to climb the career ladder, this video is packed with valuable insights and actionable advice to help you achieve your goal of becoming a Creative Director.
BONFIRE: The Mastermind Community for Established Creative Pros
https://philipvandusen.com/bonfire
Laura Pearman - Living and Breathing Brands: Making Personal Brands Come Alive by Offering Creative Direction as an Experience
Episode 38
Monday, September 20, 2021 • Duration 49:15
Joining me on this episode is someone who embodies this brand authenticity and literally walks the talk. Laura Pearman is the owner of Laura Pearman Creatives which offers brand strategy, creative direction, and brand photography.
We discuss: ● How she lives as a vintage pin-up ● Adapting her services to respond to the demands of the creative economy and the pandemic situation ● How she approaches her photography service as a total branding experience ● The Fear Factor of education and why it comes naturally for her to loop her clients in on how and why she works the way she does ● The origins of MwahTV and how it helps people create content they want to, not just content they think they should be producing ● Why she humanizes her brand by inserting rough footage and blooper reels in her videos ● The different themes of her personal brand (cocktails, music, Suki the cat, traveling, and feminism) ● How she maintains her authenticity while keeping some content topics off-limits ● Her YouTube growth and content marketing best practices ● A loophole she found in YouTube forecasting ● Sonic Branding and examples of brands who are doing it really well ● Struggles she faced as a creative and the importance of speaking up about anxiety and depression as a creative entrepreneur ● Her advice on being realistic with your time and being open to adapt and modify what you’re doing ● Her mantra on being happy to fail
Philip VanDusen - 7 Biggest Website Mistakes Creative Professionals Make
Episode 37
Monday, September 13, 2021 • Duration 21:10
Does it present your brand and service well enough to get people to want to work with you? In this episode, I talk about the 7 biggest website mistakes that may very well be costing you warm leads and conversions.
1. Talking too much about yourself ● People who visit your website don’t want to know who you are, they want to know how you can solve their problem. ● State your service offering as a problem so your audience can identify with you and your solution to that pain point.
2. Doing too much stuff or saying that you do too much stuff ● Be more judicious and reserved about what you say you do. ● People want to know what you’re good at and that you focus on the problem that they want solved. . 3. Hiding your work ● Don’t make your website’s visitors have to dig through so many navigations just to see your work. ● Viewership from the homepage drops dramatically so it’s a good idea to put some of your best projects as thumbnails on your homepage so if they get nowhere from there, they get a little taste of your work and the clients you’ve worked with.
4. Not letting customers tell your story ● Ask clients for testimonials on their experiences working with you. ● Testimonials will speak louder for you and your work than anything that you yourself say.
5. Being opaque and not genuine ● Don’t sound like a brand bot. Be a human and sound like yourself because people like to do business with people. ● Be straightforward and keep your copy short.
6. No About page ● This is the right place to talk about yourself, share your story, and add a picture. ● Don’t misinterpret yourself. Let your personality shine through and add snippets that humanize you.
7. No thinking ● People want to understand how you think. Having a blog helps show that you’re not simply a mouse pusher. ● Practicing some sort of content marketing allows your audience to see how you think, what trends and topics you follow, what your conversational style is like, etc.
Michael Janda - The Relationship Game: Building Real Personal Brand Connections
Episode 36
Monday, September 6, 2021 • Duration 58:22
Michael Janda is an award-winning Creative Director, agency veteran, and author. He founded Riser, his own creative agency, which boasts high profile clients such as Google, Warner Brothers, FOX, NBC, National Geographic, and Disney.
We talk about: ● Having things you can be known for: the story of his thing with bobbleheads ● His career trajectory: from building a successful website that generated 10 million worth of venture capitalist seed money, to getting his computer as his last pay, to landing a Creative Director job at FOX, and how he eventually lost it all after the 9/11 catastrophe ● What he did to pivot his career after all that and how he eventually decided to build his own agency ● The Relationship Game: how he got freelance gigs from connections from his old positions and previous colleagues who went on to work for new companies ● The logical move to Salt Lake City from LA that allowed him to offer more affordable prices while being in a setup that was more conducive to remote work ● What he means when he says Riser was the #1 third bid option for the entertainment industry ● His book "Burn Your Portfolio" and why he felt he needed to write it ● How he feels about soft skills and why being the best designer isn’t good enough ● A speaking engagement in Moscow that awakened an impostor syndrome moment for him which led to his leap to becoming a content creator ● His Instagram that’s a poster child of great visual branding ● His private coaching service and why he thinks creative entrepreneurs need confidence most these days ● His personal manifesto of succeeding through real relationships and adding value to people’s lives one person at a time
Philip VanDusen - The #1 Unicorn Skill For Creative Professionals
Episode 35
Monday, August 30, 2021 • Duration 18:33
Writing is the #1 unicorn skill that will advance your career faster and make it stronger as a creative professional.
I talk about: ● How so much creative work relies on writing and good communication ● My experience of finishing my first course — Brand Strategy 101 and how that helped me realize that copywriting and the ability to capture nuances in copy is important in strategy ● Achieving massive success as a creative pro by developing a unification of both design and writing skills ● The Top 3 skills designers need outside of creative abilities and how being a good copywriter leverages those skills further ● The biggest red flag when it comes to communicating that may be causing projects to be turned down ● Why you should learn to articulate what you do, verbally present your work, and get your point across ● “Content is king” philosophy and the need to leverage being a content creator in today’s competitive world ● Building credibility as someone who knows what they’re talking about and can articulate it well ● Writing as a career advancement insurance as you rise up the ranks in your career ● How to be a better writer, why deadlines are motivating, and the 10,000-hour rule that applies to writing ● Resources that will help your writing skills improve
While it’s imperative as a creative professional that you get better at writing, you don’t have to do it alone. Take a course, read a blog, and start putting it to practice. What’s important is you just start.
Omar Farook - Adapting A Refine Mantra in Branding and the Tech Space
Episode 34
Monday, August 23, 2021 • Duration 46:46
In the branding space, it’s common knowledge and even canon to set up a solid market-centric brand strategy first before launching a product or service.
This episode’s guest begs to differ.
We discuss: ● His stepping stone into entrepreneurship as a creative at core ● Why the Amazon FBA model is the easiest to understand and how it gives creative professionals an advantage in the marketplace ● Using his experiences as an Amazon seller to identify problems in the system that he now solves through Glorify ● Patterning Glorify after the Nathan Latka model for having a successful million dollar SaaS company ● How he used the psychology of the buyer and principles of motion picture to help over 15 Amazon businesses reach 7-figure revenues ● Why he believes tech startups should follow the “launch first, brand later” philosophy ● The perfect rebranding case study: Instagram ● His career trajectory, mentors, and heavy influences to his career ● His refine mantra and relentless persistence that keep him going ● Why he doesn’t believe in competition ● How underdogs move faster than slow-moving titans and three examples of startups that achieved massive growth in recent years ● Battling narcissism by valuing emotional intelligence
Kathy Oneto - Building an Achievable and Sustainable Dream Career
Episode 33
Monday, May 24, 2021 • Duration 43:59
These are the interesting questions Kathy Oneto, a renowned Business and Career Strategist, explains in today’s episode. A former colleague and a long-time partner of Verhaal Brand Design, Kathy is the Founder of Sustainable Ambition and the owner of The Agency Oneto.
Passion sparks the fire, purpose keeps it burning. Learn more about these two key elements in creating a workable and a long-lasting dream career.
We talk about: • Redirection of career paths • Taking a sabbatical as a great way to discover what you want • Striking the balance between two or more personal brands • Why she moved from written content to podcast • What she enjoys the most when she's at work • Building a good reputation and image to convert leads into clients faster • Next trends in the career landscape • 'Shecession' and how to get women back to the workforce • Why she does not believe in work-life balance • Her personal mantra that transcends the thin line between stability and growth
To connect with Kathy, head on over to her channels: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.oneto Instagram: LinkedIn: Sustainable Ambition Website: The Agency Oneto Website: Twitter: YouTube:
Brigette Callahan - Powerpoint Specialist: The Power of Slide Presentations
Episode 32
Monday, May 17, 2021 • Duration 44:50
While it’s true that some struggle to make ends meet, others are actually making great money. Brigette Callahan, a slide-presentation designer, turned her expertise in PowerPoint into a 6-figure business..
Brigette creates engaging slides to help speakers present with more confidence and inspire their audience. She has worked with some of the biggest names in the business like Xerox, Acura, Samsung, and Paypal.
The sought-after presentation designer and I discuss: • How she made a viable career out of her creativity • Marketing before the digital age and the power of word-of-mouth • A life-changing experience that got her hooked in the slide-presentation industry • Loads of tips and advice to effectively promote your personal brand and style as an artist • The predecessor of PowerPoint • Her favorite quote from Picasso that liberated her creativity from the limiting cage of originality • Understanding how different formats work with different apps for Android and iOS • Who her top mentor is • The important role of scriptwriting in slide-presentation design • How she's worked remotely since 1999 • Closing 4 out of 5 deals - sales skills she got from her top-salesman stepfather • A powerful mantra that she lives her life by
Philip VanDusen is a branding consultant and the owner of a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on building successful brands for themselves and the clients and customers they serve.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals, and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends, and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy, and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing, and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career, and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs, and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!
The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals, and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends, and marketing.
Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy, and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing, and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career, and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs, and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.
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