Mindfully Made Studio

Thirst trap, business owner ver?

Thought I’d mix things up and do the good ol’ fav fonts post a bit differently by sharing some music too.

✨Manifesting✨ is in 🤌🏻

This little guy sadly didn’t make the cut and is ending up in the logo cemetery 🪦

How NOT to be a jerk on Instagram.

✷ We’re humans, not robots ↓
Say hi, please, and goodbye. ‘How much for x’ is not the right way to make a query. It’s rude.

✷ Don’t ask for free work (aka spec work) or “samples” ↓
No, I’m not sending you ‘quick sketches’ without payment. Do you take a bite of the pastries at your local baker before you buy them? Didn’t think so.

✷ Be patient ↓
Just because DM means Direct Message doesn’t mean we’re on our phones, ready to answer your message within the next minute 24/7. We have business hours, and a personal life just like you do. Most business owners will reply to your message within 24-48 hours.

✷ Don’t send (freezing) cold DMs ↓
Please stop promoting your offers through DMs to people you’ve never engaged with prior. Worse, don’t follow up THREE times. People can tell when you’re not being genuine.

Phew. Okay, what’s the one thing that’s not on this list you feel should also be part of DM etiquette?

"I don't want to be brought into political controversy". Purposefully choosing to stay silent so you can keep your clientele and making money is disgusting. Your business is a reflection of yourself. If human rights matter to you, they should matter to your business. The only obstacle between this and that is your greed. Stop the BS.

I’ll let you in on a secret: I know a whole lot about being scared. After all, I was diagnosed with social anxiety at 15, and generalized anxiety at 25.

What CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) taught me early on, is that you have to face your fears. Be scared, and do it anyway. You don’t have to start by the scariest thing, and you certainly don’t have to do it all at once, but you have to try.

Two years into my first corporate job, I felt like I couldn’t make sense of anything anymore. I was lost. I felt like I failed because I didn’t succeed in creating that 9-5, boyfriend, house and a car life for myself. And then I realized: all of this didn’t matter, as long as I didn’t settle for easy. So I did one of the scariest thing I ever did and bought a one-way ticket to Australia. I arrived in Melbourne alone, with no place to live and no job lined up. I’ll be honest, there were tears.

But here’s what I did next:

➡️ I worked in Retail and Hospitality, speaking a language that’s not mine and adapting to another culture (let me tell you, social anxiety and Australian culture do NOT match 😅).

➡️ Said yes to every opportunity I was given to make new friends, even if I was terrified.

➡️ Enrolled in a Yoga teacher training, and actually taught.

➡️ Launched my own design business and put myself out there.

I guess all I’m saying is, I know first hand how overwhelming things can get, how scary it all can be, and how depressing it can feel when we think we’ve failed. Thing is, you don’t have to have it all figured out yet. You really don’t. As long as you’re taking risks, you’re doing just fine.

The one thing you didn’t know about Canva.

You may not know this, but you don’t necessarily own your logo if it’s made in Canva. The final design will be yours because it’s your original composition, but the individual elements you have used to achieve the ultimate result will be owned by the original copyright owner/creator.

As said in Canva’s terms and conditions, Canva’s pre-made logo layouts and elements are used by many people, so your logo will not be exclusive to you unless you heavily modify the design and elements.

This is very important if you intend to trademark your logo. Non-exclusive logos cannot be trademarked. For that you’d need to use only elements you’ve created yourself or commissioned directly and uploaded into Canva.

Another thing to note is that Canva doesn’t yet support exporting in any vector formats, which means you may struggle when needing to scale your logo without losing resolution.

So should you stop using Canva? Not necessarily, as long as you’re aware of its limitations.

If you’re ready to ditch templates, or after a free and easy to use software, I cannot recommend Adobe XD enough! It’s completely free (no, you don’t need an Adobe subscription to use it), so no need to pay to upload your brand fonts, colors and graphics. It also supports exporting in vector formats. Tutorial coming soon on how I use Adobe XD to plan my Instagram feed.

How do you feel about Canva?