Disclaimer: I hope your family, friends, loved, ones, clients and those in your world are safe. I wanted to acknowledge that we’re in the midst of something most of us have never experienced and my hope is that this podcast provides inspiration to help drive your goals forward using design. Most of the episodes for this show are recorded in advance, and although Amber and I have an important discussion about hiring help in your business. This episode was recorded in February 2020, before COVID-19, and while I don’t have all the help I’d like in my home right now, I want to say it’s important to get the help you need to support you in life and business. I’m rooting for you, I believe in you. I hope you love this episode!
Amber Crudup: Brand Strategist + Coach. Army Wife. Boy Mom x3. Scientist turned Creative Entrepreneur
She’s a self taught graphic designer, a self-proclaimed graduate of YouTube University, and an advocate for creatives charging their worth.
As a Biracial woman she has been navigating identity her entire life and she now uses this unique perspective to help creative entrepreneurs uncover the true identity of their brands so they can effectively market themselves. Using strategy and her signature methodologies + framework, she helps creative entrepreneurs:
Gain focus and clarity around their brand so they can position themselves as experts
Confidently raise their prices so they can charge their worth or tap into a premium market
Develop a visual identity + online presence that’s designed to attract and convert quality clients, helping them generate consistent revenue month after month.
Simply put, she helps my clients stand out from their competition so they can start booking quality clients consistently, while establishing themselves as experts and positioning their brands in a way that allows them to charge premium rates.
Here’s what we covered on the episode:
- How I got Amber’s name after interviewing Ticora Davis on episode 56 of the podcast
- How Amber was very creative even at a young age which started her interest in design
- In 2002 she read an article and decided she wanted to design spread layouts for magazines so she went to North Carolina A&T where she studied visual arts and design
- How Amber let self doubt get to her and decided to change her major to animal science
- How Amber got laid off in 2008 from the biomedical field and fell back into the world of design
- How Amber took the first job she could which was at a wedding venue that put her back in touch with her creative side
- How Amber taught herself graphic design and built a wedding stationery business
- How in 2017 Amber transitioned into brand and web design
- How growing up on a farm impacted Amber to pick animal science as a major
- How YouTube University taught Amber the skill set to use the software and how she started off using photoshop and illustrator
- How being pregnant with her sons impacted what she was able to do at her wedding venue job
- How Amber needed a way to stay in the wedding world but work at home which led her to start her wedding stationery business
- How Amber landed on branding and web design after realizing she wanted to help people change their lives and not just make an impact for one day
- How Amber learned everything she could about branding and web design from 2016-2017
- Amber explains what it was like to work from home with three boys and when she got most of her work done
- How hiring a cleaner or personal assistant is a good investment for your business so you can spend more time working on what you love
- How knowing what the best use of your time is and knowing how much your time is worth can help change your mindset
- How you should be spending your time on revenue generating tasks and not the small tasks that you can have someone else do
- How Amber offers brand and web design services and packages them together to make two different offers
- The difference between Amber’s first and second offer for her brand and web design services
- How the core of Amber’s services come from the strategy that happens before the designing starts
- How stepping into a brand strategist role has changed Amber’s mindset about design
- How Amber offers her clients more than just a pretty website and gives them the strategy and tools they need to convert
- Amber’s starting prices for her services when she didn’t package them together and how it’s changed throughout the years
- The prices of Amber’s packages as of last year and how she has increased them again this year
- How in 2018 Amber developed a signature strategy that allowed her to break past the six figure mark
- How Amber created her signature strategy to help guide and teach other designers how to build a profitable business that helps themselves and their clients
- How Amber has transitioned from full out designer to helping designers grow and build their business
- How Amber first launched her program Designed to Profit in the spring of 2019 and has done it three more times since then and continues to fine tune it
- How Amber does development for websites on the Showit platform which is simple and makes it easy for her clients to make updates
- Why Amber charges for source files when she designs and how much she charges
- How Amber is in the process of moving her business towards an agency model
- How students in Amber’s program Designed to Profit have the opportunity to join her team after to help build their portfolios and see what it’s like to work with high quality clients
- How schools might be falling behind on what they should really be teaching students which also inspired Amber to create her program
- How we want to help people see what’s available to them and teach them so they don’t lack knowledge
- How you can find information on Amber’s upcoming program on her website and get on a waitlist or how you can connect with her on Instagram
- How you deserve to value your worth and charge your worth in your business
- How Amber’s program is more than a course and involves group coaching where you get a lot of access to Amber
- You can see stories and transformations from Amber’s students on her Instagram or under #DTP
Links mentioned:
Ambers Program- Designed to Profit
Connect with Amber on Instagram
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