How it All Began
A decade ago, I set out with a fresh ambition to start a new chapter in my career with a pretty simple business idea – that good design & branding could be a driving force to help mission-minded organizations reach and impact more people.
It was October 2011…
The loss of my last job was painfully fresh in my mind, so I took a little time to reflect, completed a house project or two, and attended a creative retreat with some friends.
My reflection took me back to a time right after college and the dream I had back then, which was to make it in the design industry, climb the ranks, and one day own my own agency. I also had dreamed of getting married, starting a family, and finding involvement in my community and church.
While it seemed at that moment in time that I had failed to advance in my career the way I had envisioned, I saw an opportunity to pick up my dream again and take a major step forward in realizing it: starting my own freelance design business.
I didn’t have a business degree and knew very little about what to do, but I asked a lot of people for advice, got some legal help in drafting the documents I needed, and filed to register my business with the Indiana Secretary of State on October 6, 2011.
HellothisisJeff Design was born.
I set up shop out of our spare bedroom, designed a brand identity, and began taking everything I had experienced and lessons learned from my agency days and my church staff days to create a business model centered on:
helping non-profits, churches, and small businesses increase the effectiveness of their brands
building healthy client-designer relationships marked by open dialog and clear communication
using the principles of story to help brands better engage their audiences
Where did the work come from?
My first client work came through referrals... one that I had done freelance work for in the past and another from a friend of mine who passed on a potential design job himself, instead passing it along to me. This single referral yielded more than a year and a half’s worth of work and the kickstart my business needed to get off the ground.
Over the years, referrals like that one and word of mouth have been the primary sales funnel for new work arriving to my doorstep... I’ve been fortunate to never need to market myself in the traditional sense beyond just maintaining a clear and professional website.
What have been some of the biggest hurdles in your freelance career?
Certainly navigating the unknowns of getting started was challenging, but I have God and others to thank for bringing in the work, offering advice, and helping get everything operational, legal, and all of that. I think it’s important to know you don’t have to go it alone, even when it’s just you. It’s okay to ask for help, lean on others with more experience, and accept others’ generosity when starting out.
Another major hurdle has been maintaining my self-confidence despite physical and creative isolation – it’s easy to slip into feeling like a failure when you lack those external voices providing feedback and encouragement. Personally, I go to Scripture and prayer to combat the lies I’m constantly telling myself, and I seek out community (lunch with a friend, conversations with my wife, online groups, etc.) to fight off the effects of isolation. Also, I seem to thrive best when I make time to go for walks/hikes, be out in nature, and allow space for ideas to percolate and God to speak.
What are a few things you wish you had known starting out?
I wish I had known that constantly chasing after perfection wasn’t worth it. Even very early on in my career, I often chose to hide behind my work, fearful of what would happen if people saw the real me. Living in this perfectionistic mindset cost me a great deal of happiness.
I wish I had better understood that my identity and worth as a human being were not tied to my performance. I know now that I am loved and accepted simply because I am who God made me to be.
I wish I had known that everyone fakes it to some degree, even the so-called “experts”.
A younger me hiding behind my work (2011)
How have you defined success for yourself?
In terms of my work, I am measuring success not by playing the comparison game, but by how well my work has helped the client achieve their goal or solve their problem.
In terms of my career, I think success is following your dream and God’s calling on your life, whatever that looks like. For me, that was starting my own design business, finding someone to love and share life with, and raising a family together.
In terms of life, I believe success can only truly be found by following Christ and allowing Him to shape your heart to be more like Him. “What can it profit a man to gain the whole world but yet forfeit his soul?” The world offers a lot of cheap counterfeits and calls it “success,” but we were never intended to find satisfaction through worldly success, but only in relationship with our Maker and in doing what pleases Him.
Me no longer hiding in 2021
