Beyond Design: Practical Tips for Freelancing & Creating Your Brand
How do you build a professional personal brand without losing the personal part? You may often feel like you need to be someone other than yourself when you're in a professional setting. Building a personal brand can be organic but the best ones are built authentically and strategically.
Once you know who you are and what you stand for, your reputation will speak for itself. Whether it's where you go to find clients, what your client onboarding process is or what clients you choose to serve, all aspects of your freelance business matter.
In this Master Class webinar, Nakita M. Pope will show you practical tips for freelancing and building your own brand.
You’ll learn:
- How to think like a brand even if you’re a solo freelancer.
- How to apply the elements of an effective brand (like storybranding, brand voice, messaging and design) to create results.
- How to define your niche and define your audience.
- How to genuinely connect with your colleagues and clients.
- How to get and keep clients.
- How to develop a workflow, process and communication structure that makes working with you a pleasant experience.
No matter where you are in your design career, building your own personal brand authentically and strategically will always give you an advantage! When you learn how to think like a brand, what makes you unique and how to better connect with clients and stakeholders, you’ll be able to open up new and exciting opportunities for yourself!
Speaker
Nakita M. Pope is the Chief Chick and Principal Brand Strategist of Branding Chicks, a boutique branding agency in Atlanta, GA with clients all over the United States. Over the past 25 years, she has worked as a strategist, graphic designer, creative director and brand manager which has given her experiences that inform how she works with her clients.
Her passion for brand strategy also extends to her advertising strategy, branding and design professorship at The Creative Circus for the past 13 years. In 2019 she also took on an additional role there as their Diversity & Inclusion Advisor and a year later the Design Department Chair role. In 2020 she was also named one of Graphic Design USA Magazine’s People to Watch. Nakita is involved in several professional and non-profit organizations including AIGA where she was named an AIGA Atlanta Fellow in 2021 for her contributions to AIGA and the local, regional and national design community. She is a core team member of African-American Graphic Designers (AAGD). She is also the Vice President of the Board of Directors of Smart Girls on Campus and a board member of Good Thinking Atlanta.
She is also the Co-Founder of Bella Boss, a subscription box for Black women business owners. Along with her work and passion projects, she now gets to share her knowledge and experiences with diverse audiences on the international speaking stage for organizations like The Female Founders Network, BBDO Atlanta, Phoenix Design Week, The One Club, Public Relations Society of America and the Georgia Tech College of Business. As always, her goal is to wield her crayons for good. You can connect with Nakita on her website or LinkedIn.
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