Colleen Eakins is a dynamic and creative individual that possess a knack for great design. With over 15 years of experience in the field of graphic design, Colleen is able to effectively brand her clients with great design pieces. Her motto is: “Anyone can make a pretty picture, but is it effective? Will it make your customer buy your product or use your services? My design tries to answer with a YES!”
Yesterday I talked about the dream I realized with my freelance business and today; I want to ask a simple question. What is holding you back from realizing your dream?
For many, I think fear is the biggest factor; a fear of failure. Sometimes thinking about the negative “what if’s” can be crippling. What if I run out of money? What if no one buys it? What if I just can’t do it? I think that it is a natural inclination to think about the negative implications. I know for me, it is truly a challenge to try to think of the positive implications first. What if I am successful? What if this works? What if I find true happiness?
The saying that you will never know failure or success if you never try or don’t start, is true. None of the questions above will ever be answered if you don’t try. You will never know until you do.
Colleen Eakins is a dynamic and creative individual that possess a knack for great design. With over 15 years of experience in the field of graphic design, Colleen is able to effectively brand her clients with great design pieces. Her motto is: “Anyone can make a pretty picture, but is it effective? Will it make your customer buy your product or use your services? My design tries to answer with a YES!”
I can’t wait to see how the future unfolds for me because I am not done dreaming. I still have more dreams to make come true. – Colleen Eakins
The year is quickly coming to a close and I have been taking a little time to do some self-reflection. I am doing it to remind myself of how much I have to be grateful for, and as kind of a way to slow down, live and relish the moment. To enjoy the now. As much as I try to live in the moment, I often find myself giddy with anticipation of the future and what’s next for me. You see, I am a huge dreamer and a big proponent of positive thinking. I believe that I can make my dreams come true and my big noggin (I can’t find hats that fit) is full of dreams.
Almost 2 ½ years ago, I decided to take a risk and take my part-time (side hustle) freelance business full-time. The economy was down and the freelance graphic design landscape was not very promising, but I decided that working from home and for myself, was something I wanted to do. I had been working as a contract graphic designer for 3M in Atlanta for 4 years and my contract was finally coming to a close. The last 9 months of that contract, they had allowed me to work remotely from home. I loved it! I loved how I had control over my work environment and my 5 minute commute from my bed to my office. The only thing that would make the situation better was to have total control over when I worked and what I worked on. That is when I decided that when the contract ended, I would not look for a job and freelance full-time instead.
A lot of people thought I was crazy to not even look for a job. Not only did I not look for a job, but I turned down interview offers from recruiters. When friends that knew my contract with 3M had ended sent me job postings, I politely thanked them for thinking of me and trashed the email. I knew I could make it work and I believed that I could realize my dream. I felt that I had a few advantages working for me; one of which, is that I grew up in an entrepreneur household. My father was self-employed for almost my entire life. My first job was at the age of 8. I filed files for $3 a week. When I was in high school, I worked as his administrative assistant, when a family emergency took her out of the country for an extended amount of time. I worked for him every summer through my freshman year of college and even received a raise! I learned to type, write reports, operate common office equipment, customer service, client relations and what it takes to run a successful business.
Another advantage I had, was that my business already existed; it was just on a much smaller scale than it is now. My last advantage was that what I do now, is the same exact thing I did in corporate America. That does not mean that I had the amount of work and clients needed to make my full-time status a success, but I knew that if I put in the work, was diligent and believed that I could, I would. Reflecting on all of this tells me that I did.
I am not done yet. I have more dreams and goals for this business and a lot more dreams and goals for my life in general. I will realize those dreams. I know I will, because I believe I can.
Do you have dreams that you have realized or plan to make come true? What are they?
Colleen Eakins is a dynamic and creative individual that possess a knack for great design. With over 15 years of experience in the field of graphic design, Colleen is able to effectively brand her clients with great design pieces. Her motto is: “Anyone can make a pretty picture, but is it effective? Will it make your customer buy your product or use your services? My design tries to answer with a YES!”
If you are a small business owner, entrepreneur, solopreneur or a freelancer, you are constantly looking for ways to increase the profitability of your business. This could be from a logistics standpoint or from a marketing standpoint, but no matter what, consuming information is the base to do so. Why; because knowledge is power. Knowledge can also make your head explode. While it is a tool that can arm and guide you to make your business better, the wealth of information out there and available, can be overwhelming.
I have come close to the brink of a brain/head explosion plenty of times and I have also been the cause of an almost head explosion. I read a lot and I have always been big into reading. I was the kid that asked for books (and art supplies) for Christmas and I earned many free personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut, through their Book-it program. As an adult, in addition to reading books and works of fiction, I now also read a lot of blog sites related to my industry and for business. I have to be careful of how much information I consume and how quickly I consume it.
I have come to realize that my brain can only hold and process so much new information at a time. There is a limit for me. I have to let everything new that I have learned settle in for a bit, before pouring more information in. I would liken it to pouring soda into a cup. Because of the carbonation, you cannot quickly pour the soda all in at one time without it fizzing up and out of the cup. You have to pour a little in, wait for the fizz to die down and settle, and then continue to pour. This is what I have to do with my brain. If I don’t, I fall into a place of information overload and I feel like my head is about to explode.
It’s not very productive. All of the information and knowledge I have taken in is all for naught, because I am too overwhelmed to apply it to my needs or implement anything. Instead, I throw my hands up in the air and do nothing. However, if I consume in small bites, I actually do something with that information. So what is the lesson learned? Consume information in smaller chunks to keep your head from exploding. It will also lead to a more productive use of the information you have gained.
Colleen Eakins is a dynamic and creative individual that possess a knack for great design. With over 15 years of experience in the field of graphic design, Colleen is able to effectively brand her clients with great design pieces. Her motto is: “Anyone can make a pretty picture, but is it effective? Will it make your customer buy your product or use your services? My design tries to answer with a YES!”
‘Tis the season to be jolly…and to give gifts. I recently read an article that was posted on LinkedIn by Adam Grant about the gift of giving an introduction. In the article he wrote about the value giving someone an introduction can bring and the relatively low cost of doing so. He also chronicled introductions given by people that lead to the evolution of some of the biggest brands to date. For example, after an introduction by a friend, Steve Wozniack met Steve Jobs and Apple was born. A classmate named Paul McCartney was introduced to John Lennon and, well you know how that story ended, with the Beatles.
I agree with what he said that giving an introduction as a gift is very often overlooked. I am a big proponent of helping others and connecting people that might of service to each other. Sometimes I have client’s that I think could use or benefit from each other in some way and I introduce them. Recently, I was pitched by a freelance copywriter about using their services. Not only did I feel that I had a use for them with some of my projects, I also thought of a client that could use them as well. I introduced them and he ended up doing some work for both of us.
This holiday season, I am going to make a point of giving the gift of an introduction to as many people as I can and I encourage my fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners to do the same. Who knows, maybe an introduction we give can spawn the birth of the next big thing!
Colleen Eakins is a dynamic and creative individual that possess a knack for great design. With over 15 years of experience in the field of graphic design, Colleen is able to effectively brand her clients with great design pieces. Her motto is: “Anyone can make a pretty picture, but is it effective? Will it make your customer buy your product or use your services? My design tries to answer with a YES!”