How to win as a Brand Designer?

Why are you in this game?

Why have you voluntarily signed up for this tough world when you know very well how uncomfortable it gets? The late nights, the difficult clients, the uncertainty of the next pay check.

I believe the answer is the same for all of us.

To impress the future version of you.

You're doing this for the person you'll become five years down the line. You want them to look back at your struggle right now and feel proud. You want them to see that every hard decision, every risk you took, every boundary you set was worth it.

You're building a business that creates the freedom and impact you've always wanted. One where you work with clients who respect your expertise, pay you what you're worth, and give you the space to create work you're genuinely proud of.

So today, I'm going to give you a different way of thinking about winning. Because if you can train yourself to make better decisions moment to moment, you'll win on the bigger scale. I'll give you a compass for making those decisions.

Because I think, {first_name}, you probably already know what you have to do.

You know you should be posting consistently. You know you should find new leads. You know you should set boundaries with clients.

So why don't you?

There are two reasons, I see most designers lose even when they know “what to do”.

(lose in this context: not do what they could, to win at this game of running a design business)

Reason 1: Most designers treat their business like a hobby

You know exactly what to do.

But you’re waiting for it to feel easy before you start doing it consistently.

• You’ll send 10 cold emails, get 2 “Not interested”, and think this isn't working.

• You’ll spend hours perfecting one Instagram post, then wait a week before posting again.

• You’ll think and strategize and make the perfect plan and before you execute, you start finding flaws and then get back to square one.

When you operate like this, you're treating your business like a side project you'll get to when you feel motivated. You're waiting for everything to align perfectly before you commit.

And that approach guarantees you'll stay stuck.

Ask yourself: What actually happens if you don't change anything?

In 6 months, you'll still be having the same conversations with yourself about "getting serious" about your business.

In 12 months, you'll be watching other designers land the clients you wish you had, while you're still "figuring it out."

In 5 years, you'll be explaining to people why your design business never really took off.

You'll wonder what could have been if you'd just committed.

Write down your own honest response to this question:

What WILL happen if you don’t change anything?

Make it as real and uncomfortable as possible. Come back to it every time you feel yourself slipping into the comfort zone.

Because that discomfort is exactly why you wanted to change in the first place.

Reason 2: Most designers stay stuck in opportunity-hopping hell.

If you manage to push past treating it like a hobby, there's still one more trap waiting for you.

Most ambitious designers who don't succeed follow the exact same pattern.

Uninformed optimism 1.0: "Hey, Instagram content looks promising. I'm going to dive in and post consistently."

Informed pessimism 1.0 : "Oh, this is harder than I thought. I've been posting for three weeks and no clients yet."

Valley of despair 1.0: "Why am I even trying this? Oh this other guy seems to be doing so much better on LinkedIn. Maybe that’s what I should try!"

They give up on Instagram and start over with a new strategy.

“This time, I’ll get help”, they say. So the cycle begins.

Uninformed optimism 2.0: So they hire a coach who promises they'll generate leads through LinkedIn. The coach shows ten other people who got results. The designer starts creating content. First week is easy, they're motivated.

Informed pessimism 2.0: Second week, it gets harder. Ideas stop flowing.The leads aren't there yet. Somehow, they push through.

Valley of despair 2.0: Third week, they've had enough. They fire the coach saying this isn't working. Then they hire another coach who says "I'll get you leads with cold outreach."

And the cycle starts again.

Both content and cold outreach work. You just have to push through the valley of despair long enough to see results.

If you want to actually win, you need to stick it out when it gets uncomfortable.

That's when most people quit, but that's also when you're closest to a breakthrough.

Right now, future you is watching.

They're taking notes on every choice you make and everything you do. Five years from now, when you meet them, will their first words be "thank you so much" or "what the hell were you thinking?"

But knowing this doesn't make it easier, does it?

You wake up planning to reach out to five potential clients today. But then you tell yourself, "I'll do it tomorrow when I have more energy." You get a tiny hit of relief. Your brain rewards you with a small dopamine spike for putting it off. Tomorrow feels safer. Tomorrow feels better.

Except tomorrow, the same thing happens again.

Your brain is wired to seek immediate rewards.

• Scrolling Instagram gives you instant feedback.

• Tweaking your portfolio for the hundredth time feels productive right now.

• Telling yourself "I'll start on Monday" gives you permission to relax today.

These are all cheap dopamine hits.

The ONLY Thing that lets you push through is the ability to wait for delayed gratification.

Sending those five emails today feels uncomfortable. There's no instant reward. You might not hear back for days. You might get rejected. Your brain fights you on this because there's no immediate payoff.

But when you do the hard thing anyway: when you send the emails, post the content, have the difficult conversation with a client, you get something more valuable than a dopamine spike.

You get the feeling of having done the work.

Of building proof that you're the kind of designer who follows through.

So what now?

Sure you understand why following through is hard and what you're actually choosing between, so will you do it?

Maybe for sometime. And then you’ll fall back, like most of us do.

That’s why what you need is a SYSTEM for making better decisions. A system to fall back on. A system that gets you out of the rut.

To make this super easy, I want to discuss this two-step process that I’ve heard from Alex Hormozi.

Step 1: Use inversion to find your strategy.

Charlie Munger, talked about this principle constantly: "Invert, always invert."

Our brains are wired to spot problems, not solutions. We can use that to our advantage. Instead of trying to figure out what successful designers do, figure out what unsuccessful designers do. Then do the opposite.

Think about it: What would the least successful version of yourself do to guarantee failure?

How about:

• Never work out or take care of your health

• Have no clear offer or positioning

• Tell no one about what you do and offer

• Compete on price and be the “cheapest option”

• Wait for people to find you magically

• Never follow up with leads

• Undercharge and overdeliver until you burn out

Complete this list for yourself. I promise you'll be able to come up with more. Notice how remarkably easy it is to identify these "guarantee I fail" behaviors.

Now flip the script. That's your strategy.

• Work out consistently and prioritize your health

• Have a clear, specific offer and positioning that helps you stand out

• Tell EVERYONE you know about what you do and offer

• Charge based on the value you create, not the hours you spend

• Go out and seek new clients you know you can help!

• Follow up persistently with leads

• Set boundaries and charge what you're worth

If you do all of these things consistently, over a stretched out period of time, it will be IMPOSSIBLE to fail.

Now, if you’re thinking “But I don’t know how to have a clear, specific offer and positioning that helps me stand out”.

That’s why we have the next step.

Step 2: Break down "what" into micro-actions to get "how."

If you don't know how to do something, it's almost always because you haven't broken it down into small enough steps.

That’s why just knowing that you should have a clear, specific offer and positioning that helps you stand out, still leaves you feeling stuck.

Because you might not know where to start.

But watch what happens when I break it down into clear, actionable steps:

• Research 3-5 “successful” designers in your space and write down exactly what they say they do

• List the specific transformation you provide for clients (not just "I create brand identities" but what that identity helps them achieve)

• Identify the type of client you serve best (what industry, what stage of business, what values do they have)

• Write a one-sentence positioning statement: "I help [specific client type] achieve [specific transformation] through [your approach]"

• Test this statement with 5 people outside the design world and see if they understand what you do

• Update your website, Instagram bio, and outreach messages to reflect this positioning

Once you convert all the items from your inversion list into specific action steps, you'll know exactly how you'll win. If you can't figure out the action steps yourself, ask ChatGPT to help you break them down. If you're still not sure, that's when you invest in a mentor who will give you the answers.

You just need to keep doing this.

That’s what will turn you into the person who runs a successful design business.

A fit person is someone who exercises consistently and eats intentionally. A confident designer is someone who practices pitching their value and handles rejection without spiralling.

To become a winning designer, all you need to do is take the actions that winning designers take. Consistently.

The moment you start doing this is the moment you start winning.

Because you're making Future You proud.

Chat soon,

Abi 😊

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